BX  8729   .M3  H39  1863 
Hayden,  William  B.  1816- 
1893. 

Ten  chapters  on  marriage 


,33 


1 
I 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/tenchaptersonmarOOhayd 


TEN  CHAPTERS 

ON 

MARRIAGE: 


ITS  NATURE,  USES,  DUTIES,  AND 
FINAL  ISSUES. 


/ 

BY   WILLIAM   B.  IIAYDEN, 

MINISTER  OP  THE  NEW-JERUSALEM  CHURCH. 


SecoiiU  islittton. 


BOSTON  : 
WILLIAM  CARTER  &  BROTHER, 

21,  Bromfield  Street. 
1863. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1862,  by 
WILLIAM   CARTER  AND  BROTHER, 
In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


HUSTON: 

PRINTED   BY  JOHN   WILSON   AND  SON, 
5,  Water  Strekt. 


DEDICATION. 

®0  mg  §jel0fr*fo  W&ifo, 


THE    COMPANION    OF    MORE    THAN    TWENTY    YEARS  OF 
WEDDED  LIFE, 

BY  WHOSE  THOUGHTFUL  CO-OPERATION  SO  MANY  OF  ITS  LESSONS 
HAVE  BEEN  LEARNED,  AND  SO  MANY  OF  ITS 
DELIGHTS  ENJOYED; 

WHOSE  TENDER  LOVE  HAS   CHEERED   SO   MANY  OF  ITS  ARDUOUS 
LABORS,  AND  SMOOTHED  SO  MANY  OF 
ITS  TRIALS  ; 

AT  WHOSE  REQUEST  THESE  PAGES  WERE  PREPARED,  AND  WITH- 
OUT WHOSE   FOSTERING   INFLUENCE   THEY  NEVER 
WOULD   HAVE  BEEN  COMPLETED, — 

ibis  SStork  is  Inscribed, 

AS   A   JUST  TRIBUTE   OF    ESTEEM   AND  GRATITUDE, 


BY  HER  AFFECTIONATE  UUSBAND. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Dual  Creation.  —  The  Analogies  of  the  Physical 
Universe,  Animate  and  Inanimate.  Sexuality  of 
the  Soul  1 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Implanted  Law.  —  Origin.  Mental  Distinctions. 
Distinguishing  Characteristics  of  the  Two  Sexes. 
Women's  Rights.    The  True  Order  of  Develop- 


CHAPTER  III. 


The  Betrothal.  —  Religious  Principle,  the  Primary 
Thing.  Purposes.  Cautions.  Amenities.  Duties. 
Pleasures  of  Courtship  35 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Uses  or  Marriage.  —  To  the  World.  To  the  In- 
dividual. Means  of  populating  Heaven,  and  of 
promoting'  Personal  Regeneration  _  Co 


CHAPTER  V. 

Means  oe  Union.  —  Advice  to  Married  Partners.  How 
to  become  united.  The  Divine  Precepts  of  Life, 
the  true  Ground  of  Union.  The  purifying  Prin- 
ciple  77 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Mutual  Duties. — Conjugial  Love,  in  its  Essence,  a 
Spiritual  Love.  What  Things  are  to  be  given  up. 
True  Jealousy.  Singleness  of  Attention.  The 
Church  supplies  the  Wedding  Garment  ....  80 


CHAPTER  VII. 

What  of  the  FUTURE  Life.  —  Immortality  of  the  Sex- 
ual Distinction.  The  Lord's  Words  to  the  Saddu- 
cees  refer  to  the  Spiritual  Marriage,  and  not  to  the 
Connubial  Relation  :  shown  from  Scripture  .    .  .105 


CONTENTS. 


vii 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Coxjuoial  Relation  ix  the  Life  after  Death.  12:! 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Two  Ways  ;  or,  The  Called  and  the  Ciiosex.  — 
A  further  Unfolding  of  the  Spiritual  Laws,  by 
which  they  who  are  internally  united  here  are 
joined  for  ever,  and  they  who  are  not  are  sepa- 
rated for  ever  135 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Visiox  of  Beatified  Ones.  —  Extracts  from  Swe- 
denborg.  A  Memorable  Relation.  Glorification 
of  the  Lord.   Restoration  of  Conjugial  Love   .    .  149 


CHAPTER  FIRST. 


"  Female  and  male  God  made  the  man: 
His  image  is  the  whole,  not  half; 
And,  in  our  love,  we  dimly  scan 
The  love  which  is  between  Himself." 

The  Angel  in  the  Bouse. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    DUAL  CREATION. 

God  created  man  in  his  own  image;  in  the  image  of  god 
created  he  him  j  male  and  female  created  n£  them." 
—  Gen.  i.  27. 

TF  we  stop  to  regard  attentively  this  visible 
universe  in  which  we  are  placed,  we  shall 
find  it  bound  together  by  a  common  unity  of 
plan.  A  system  of  general  laws  is  seen  every- 
where running  through  it,  —  a  system  which  is 
at  once  grand,  simple,  and  harmonious ;  grand, 
on  account  of  its  vastness,  and  the  steady,  on- 
ward march  of  its  events  ;  simple,  when  viewed 
in  the  light  of  those  great  principles  of  order 
which  underlie  all  its  operation ;  and  harmonious, 
because  of  no  discord  or  contradiction  in  their 
united  and  complicated  results. 

The  compact  of  unity  is  seen  in  the  thread 
of  law  running  everywhere  through  nature, 
embracing  every  atom  and  every  movement, 


4 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


weaving  the  whole  together  in  a  common 
network.  Analogies  everywhere  exist.  Ideas 
found  in  one  place  are  discovered  repeating 
themselves  in  others.  There  is  likeness  and 
similarity  in  the  different  departments  of  na- 
ture. Principles  that  are  common  in  one  plane 
or  degree  are  found  to  recur  in  and  pervade  all 
others.  Higher  forms  and  processes  repeat 
themselves  in  lower,  while  lower  ones  continu- 
ally look  up  to  and  imitate  those  which  are 
higher. 

Things  invisible  are  seen  in  things  visible ; 
things  impalpable  are  touched  in  things  tangible. 
Spirit  everywhere  images  itself  in  matter,  and 
matter  everywhere  reflects  the  light  thrown 
over  it  by  spirit.  Thought  and  affection  type 
themselves  in  form  and  process.  The  outer- 
exterior  world  is  a  glass,  or  mirror,  in  which 
are  shown  to  the  life  the  laws  of  the  interior  or 
human  world;  for  the  one  corresponds  to  the 
other. 

The  most  conspicuous  and  pervading  princi- 
ple which  we  find  recorded  on  the  tablet  of  the 
physical  universe  is  that  of  Marriage.  It  is 
fundamental  and  universal  in  every  department. 
It  exists  in  all  higher  forms,  and  repeats  itself 
in  all  lower  ones.    Without  it,  there  would  be 


THE  DUAL  CREATIOX. 


5 


neither  production  nor  increase,  prolification  nor 
fructification. 

It  is  first  seen  in  the  light  and  heat  which 
proceed  together  from  the  sun.  The  effect  of 
their  union  is  the  vivification  of  all  nature.  As 
the  cold  of  winter  recedes,  the  light  and  heat 
flowing  in  from  the  sun  revive  and  re-animate 
every  thing  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  king- 
doms :  the  earth  is  reclothed  with  verdure,  the 
fields  covered  over  with  grain,  and  the  trees 
with  leaves  and  blossoms. 

The  whole  animal  kingdom  is  divided  into 
male  and  female.  Wherever  we  go,  in  its  three 
grand  divisions  —  of  fowls  of  the  air,  beasts  of 
the  field,  and  fishes  of  the  sea  —  the  same  law 
is  universal ;  and  by  it  the  different  species  are 
produced  and  increased. 

The  vegetable  kingdom  images  and  imitates 
the  same  thing.  All  its  members,  throughout 
their  indefinite  variety,  are  developed  according 
to  some  form  of  duplicate  powers ;  and  fructifi- 
cation comes  by  the  union  of  the  two. 

It  descends  into  the  mineral  kingdom,  and 
writes  itself  upon  the  inorganic  world  around 
us.  It  is  seen  in  the  laws  of  polarity  and 
chemical  affinity.  The  combination  of  two 
forces  or  principles  is  always  required  in  order 


6 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


that  any  thing  new  or  any  thing  further  may  be 
produced.  Even  the  elementary  substances,  of 
which  all  material  forms  are  composed,  like, 
better  than  any  other  mode,  to  combine  in  single 
pairs  ;  and  nearly  every  original  substance  found 
in  nature  is  the  result  of  such  simple  unions 
occurring  in  the  first  place,  followed  by  other 
similar  but  more  complex  combinations  after- 
wards. 

The  vast  mechanism  of  the  heavens  obeys 
it ;  and  the  floating  worlds,  as  they  wheel  their 
ways  through  space,  are  held  to  their  orbits  and 
guided  safely  on  their  flight  by  the  nice  adjust- 
ment and  balanced  union  of  two  contending 
forces. 

Thus  is  the  first  great  law  of  the  social  human 
world  imitated  in  all  nature. 

And  that  which  is  visible  everywhere  around 
us  comes  forth  from  that  which  is  invisible. 
Spirit  writes  its  own  impulses  upon  matter, 
and  matter  everywhere  obeys  the  laws  imposed 
upon  it  by  spirit.  The  powers  and  forces  which 
move  the  creation  descend  into  it  from  the  Crea- 
tor Himself.  Attributes  of  His  own  mind  are 
displayed  in  it ;  eternal  elements  of  His  own  in- 
effable nature  are  symbolized  in  it,  and  look  out 
through  it.    The  method  seen  in  it  is  the  very 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


7 


method  in  which  the  Divine  Mind  moves ;  the 
laws  impressed  upon  it  are  expressions  of  the 
mode  in  which  the  Lord's  own  thought  and 
the  Lord's  own  feeling  go  forth  into  operation ; 
and  it  is  because  the  infinite  principle,  to  which 
marriage  corresponds,  exists  in  the  mind  of  the 
Lord,  that  we  find  an  image  of  it  impressed  upon 
every  thing  of  the  creation. 

The  two  fundamental  constituents  of  the  Di- 
vine Mind  are  Love  and  Wisdom.  These  infinite 
elements  exist  in  Him  as  perfectly  distinct  and 
distinguishable  powers,  but  always  act  in  uni- 
son ;  and,  when  they  are  sent  out  into  operation 
by  Him,  they  flow  forth  together  as  one,  as  the 
light  and  heat  of  the  sun  are  united  in  the  same 
ray. 

It  is  from  His  Infinite  Love,  acting  by  and 
through  His  Divine  Wisdom,  that  all  things  in 
the  universe  have  been  produced ;  and  it  is  this 
supreme,  ineffable,  and  incomprehensible  union, 
existing  in  His  own  mind,  which  is  everywhere 
typed  and  repeated  and  re-echoed  in  nature. 
The  law  has  but  one  source  and  origin;  and 
from  that  it  descends  into  the  minds  of  the 
human  family. 

Men  are  endowed  with  faculties  and  adapta- 
tions and  proclivities  and  aptitudes  and  capaci- 


8 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


ties,  which  fit  them  to  give  this  law  a  higher 
expression  than  it  obtains  in  the  universe  below 
them.  They  may  not  only  receive  it,  but  con- 
sciously retain  and  appropriate  it.  To  them  it 
comes  as  a  light  in  which  they  may  dwell,  while 
it  illustrates  and  illuminates  their  whole  mind. 
To  nature  below  them,  it  descends  only  as  a 
light  thrown  upon  polished  surfaces,  which  is 
all  reflected  that  others  may  see. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  distinction 
of  sex  originated  in  the  purpose  of  the  Lord, 
expressed  in  a  literal  sense  of  a  passage  in 
Genesis,  that  man  should  have  a  help-meet  for 
him,  and  that  they  together  might  multiply  and 
replenish  the  earth.  It  is  supposed  to  be  only 
natural  in  its  character ;  to  be  a  condition  of  a 
physical  state  of  existence  ;  and  hence  confined 
to  the  life  of  this  present  world.  It  is  thought 
to  be  a  distinction  unknown  in  a  spiritual  state 
of  existence.  Spirits  and  angels  are  supposed 
to  be  beings  of  no  sex :  and,  when  persons  pass 
from  this  world  by  death,  they  are  expected  to 
enter  the  other  life  undistinguished  in  this 
respect ;  rising  there,  not  as  men  and  women, 
neither  as  male  nor  female. 

Hence  the  affections  proper  to  the  conjugial 
relation  have  been  deemed  to  be  merely  natural 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


9 


affections :  and  the  mutual  attraction  which  each 
sex  feels  towards  the  other  —  leading  them  to 
seek  each  other's  society,  to  associate  together, 
and  to  form  alliances  with  each  other  —  is  only 
a  physical  desire,  so  to  speak ;  something  per- 
taining to  the  "mortal  body  and  the  visible  world ; 
a  proclivity  of  mind  that  is  not  immortal,  but 
which  is  put  off  and  left  behind  when  the  mate- 
rial body  is  cast  aside. 

In  this  way,  marriage  has  been  degraded. 
At  best,  it  has  been  thought  to  be  only  a 
good  worldly  relation ;  and  all  the  ideas  formed 
in  the  minds  of  men  concerning  the  relations 
and  the  union  of  the  sexes  have  suffered  in 
consequence.  The  conjugial  relation  has  been 
supposed  to  be  destitute  of  a  truly  spiritual 
element,  and  a  life  of  celibacy  has  been  pointed 
at  as  the  higher  and  purer  and  holier  attain- 
ment. 

In  the  revelations  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
however,  another  and  fuller  light  is  thrown 
over  this  important  subject ;  and  this  light  is 
made  to  break  forth  from  the  Word  of  God. 

In  the  passage  which  forms  the  motto  of  this 
chapter,  we  read  that  "  God  created  man  in  His 
own  image ;  in  the  image  of  God  created  He  him  ; 
male  and  female  created  He  them." 


10 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


From  this  we  learn,  that,  when  God  created 
the  human  race,  He  made  them  according  to 
His  own  image ;  and  we  also  learn,  that,  by  the 
distinction  between  male  and  female,  this  image 
and  likeness  were  rendered  more  perfect  and 
complete.  As  we  have  before  shown,  therefore, 
this  distinction  is  founded  on  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  the  Divine  Nature,  and  proceeds  from  a 
fundamental  distinction  in  the  elements  of  the 
Infinite  Mind. 

It  is  a  principle  more  interior  than  the  physi- 
cal constitution.  It  pertains  to  the  spirit  as 
well  as  the  body.  Every  element  of  the  soul  is 
permeated  and  penetrated  by  it.  All  the  human 
faculties  and  powers  are  thoroughly  sexual. 
The  mind  of  the  male  is  in  every  thing  mas- 
culine, and  the  mind  of  the  female  is  in  every 
thing  feminine.  Both  for  ever  retain  these 
constitutional  characteristics,  and  go  on  appro- 
priating more  and  more  their  specific  qualities 
into  their  inner  life. 

There  are  forms  of  faculty,  and  aptitudes  of 
susceptibility,  peculiar  to  one,  which  are  not 
possessed  by  the  other.  Either  alone  does 
not  fully  image  the  Maker,  —  does  not  exhibit 
the  completed  circle  of  human  faculties.  It 
is  only  in  the  two  united  that  both  sides  of 


THE  DUAL  CREATION. 


11 


humanity  are  seen,  and  the  full  man  (homo)  pre- 
sented to  view. 

In  the  poverty  of  our  English  tongue,  we 
have  no  word  to  denote  the  whole  man,  but  are 
obliged  to  use  for  this  purpose  the  same  term 
by  which  we  usually  speak  of  the  male  only; 
while  in  the  ancient  languages  —  as  the  He- 
brew, Greek,  and  Latin  —  are  found  terms 
which  express  the  idea  of  man  as  including 
both  sexes. 


CHAPTER  SECOND. 


"  Marriage  is  a  figure  and  an  earnest 
Of  holier  things  unseen, 
And  reverence  well  becometh 
The  symbol  of  dignity  and  glory. 
Keep  thy  heart  pure, 
Lest  thou  do  dishonor  to  thy  state. 
Selfishness  is  base  and  hateful; 
But  love  considereth  not  itself." 

M.  F.  T. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE   IMPLANTED  LAW. 
"  But,  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation,  god  made 

THEM  MALE  AND  FEMALE/'  —  Mark  X.  6. 

ri^HERE  are  two  spiritual  principles  which 
reign  universally  in  the  creation :  these  are 
Good  and  Truth.  Every  thing  which  exists 
according  to  divine  order  has  relation  to  these 
two.  They  descend  into  and  appear,  in  a  kind 
of  image,  in  every  thing  which  the  observing 
mind  can  rest  upon. 

The  reason  is,  because  these  two  principles 
exist  in  the  Lord  God,  who  is  the  Author  and 
Creator  of  all.  The  universe  is  produced  by 
Him,  and  hence  is  a  work  proceeding  from 
Him;  and  must  needs,  therefore,  derive  into 
all  its  parts  somewhat  of  those  principles 
which  are  in  Him,  —  somewhat  of  that  Divine 
Good  and  that  Divine  Truth  which  are  not 
only  in  Him,  but  which  He  really  is :  for  He 


16 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


is  Essential  Love  and  Essential  Wisdom ;  and 
love  has  relation  to  what  is  good,  while  wis- 
dom has  relation  to  what  is  true. 

It  is  in  accordance  with  this  principle  that 
man  has  heen  created.  He  was  made  to  image 
his  Creator ;  and,  therefore,  has  been  created 
male  and  female.  This  distinction  has  its  seat 
primarily  in  the  soul,  and  belongs  to  the  mind ; 
for  God  is  a  spirit,  and  a  distinction  which 
should  pertain  to  the  body  only  could  not 
image  or  be  a  likeness  of  Him. 

It  is  in  the  faculties  of  the  mind  that  this 
image  exists ;  and  there  are  certain  charac- 
teristics of  mind  implanted  in  the  male  which 
are  not  proper  to  the  female,  while  there  are 
certain  others  implanted  in  the  female  that  do 
not  belong  to  the  male. 

It  is  true  that  each  individual  separately  im- 
ages the  Divine  Mind  in  a  certain  manner  and 
degree.  Each  is  a  distinct  personality,  and 
each  possesses  a  form  of  finite  faculties  cor- 
responding to  the  Infinite  Form.  Both  have 
understanding  and  will ;  and  both,  therefore, 
are  conscious  recipients  of  the  Divine  Love 
and  Wisdom.  Each  sex,  by  itself,  can  exer- 
cise both  affection  and  thought;  and  each  can 
become  the  habitation  of  good  and  of  truth. 


THE  D1PLAXTED  LAW. 


17 


And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  general  simi- 
larity, there  are  also  the  most  striking  differ- 
ences between  them.  They  do  not  both  possess 
those  faculties  in  the  same  degree,  nor  manifest 
them  in  the  same  mode.  In  man,  the  under- 
standing predominates  over  the  will;  while,  in 
woman,  the  will  predominates  over  the  under- 
standing. His  constitution  is  fitted  more  dis- 
tinctly to  manifest  wisdom,  while  hers  is  more 
distinctly  fitted  to  manifest  love.  He  is  more 
specifically  distinguished  for  intellectual  power, 
and  steadiness  of  judgment ;  while  she  is  dis- 
tinguished for  emotional  power,  and  strength 
of  affection.  The  one  possesses,  by  nature, 
an  innate  faculty  of  becoming  chiefly  a  form 
of  truth;  and  the  other,  a  similar  faculty  of 
becoming  chiefly  a  form  of  good. 

And  as  these  two  principles  proceed  from  the 
Lord  as  one,  and,  in  their  descent  into  nature, 
are  in  a  perpetual  effort  to  conjoin  themselves, 
therefore  there  is  from  nativity  implanted  in 
the  minds  of  male  and  female  a  mutual  inclina- 
tion to  unite  and  form  themselves  into  one ; 
and  as  understanding  and  will  were  created 
to  form  one  mind,  so  these  together  were  de- 
signed to  form  one  united  and  complete  man. 

The  essential  distinction  between  the  two 


18 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


principles  is  this :  In  the  masculine  principle, 
love  is  inmost,  and  its  covering  is  wisdom; 
whereas,  in  the  feminine  principle,  the  wisdom 
of  the  male  is  inmost,  and  its  covering  love 
thence  derived. 

There  are  two  principal  loves  or  great  lead- 
ing desires  which  characterize  man  as  a  rational 
being,  and  serve  to  distinguish  him  from  the 
brutes :  these  are  the  love  of  growing  wise  and 
the  love  of  wisdom.  The  first  of  these  is  pro- 
perly a  masculine  love,  and  the  other  is  properly 
a  feminine  love.  The  faculty  of  growing  wise 
is  imparted  to  the  male  by  the  Lord  in  propor- 
tion as  he  applies  himself  to  the  things  of  genu- 
ine wisdom  ;  whereas  the  love  which  is  pecu- 
liar to  the  female  is  imparted  to  her  through 
the  wisdom  of  the  male  :  wherefore  the  strictly 
feminine  principle  is  derived  from  the  mascu- 
line ;  a  truth  which  is  represented  in  Scrip- 
ture by  its  being  said  that  the  woman  was 
taken  out  of  the  man.  Thus  we  read  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Genesis,  where  there  appears 
a  second  account  of  the  creation  of  the  human 
race  :  "  And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to 
fall  upon  Adam,  and  he  slept ;  and  He  took  one  of 
his  ribs,  and  closed  up  the  flesh  instead  thereof: 
and  the  rib,  which  the  Lord  God  had  taken  from 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


19 


man,  made  He  a  woman,  and  brought  her  unto 
the  man.  And  Adam  said,  This  is  now  bone  of 
my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh:  she  shall  be 
called  Woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of 
man"  (ver.  21-23). 

It  is  not  difficult  here  to  see,  that,  behind  the 
thin  veil  of  the  letter,  something  spiritual  is 
described;  and  to  perceive,  that,  although  the 
body  is  spoken  of,  the  mind  is  what  is  really 
meant. 

As  already  said,  "  The  faculty  of  acquiring 
wisdom  is  that  which  distinguishes  man  from 
animals ;  and  wisdom  itself  is  that  which  raises 
him  above  them.  As,  however,  no  intellectual 
acquirement  can  be  made  but  from  the  prompt- 
ings of  some  love  or  desire,  man  cannot  acquire 
wisdom  but  from  the  love  of  growing  wise. 
This  is  that  primary  love  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  all  human  improvement,  and  gives 
man  the  power  of  endless  progression.  We  see 
it  in  its  earliest  development  in  the  thirst  for 
knowledge,  so  ardent  even  in  childhood.  And 
that  this  love  is  a  pure  inspiration  from  the 
Father  of  lights,  for  the  purpose  of  leading 
His  children  to  Himself,  is  evident  from  the 
circumstance  of  its  existing  in  the  mind  before 
there  is  any  rational  motive  to  give  it  birth.  It 


20 


THE  IMFLANTED  LAW. 


is  not,  indeed,  in  its  earliest  state,  the  spiritual 
love  of  growing  wise,  but  it  is  at  once  a  rudi- 
ment and  a  beautiful  type  of  that  love ;  and 
man  never  comes  into  the  genuine  love  of 
which  it  is  the  germ,  until  he  again  becomes 
a  little  child,  and  is  willing  to  be  instructed  in 
the  wisdom  that  is  from  above  by  his  Father 
who  is  in  heaven. 

"  But  when,  from  the  love  of  growing  wise, 
man  has  acquired  wisdom,  and  loves  that  wis- 
dom in  himself,  he  forms  to  himself  another 
love,  which,  as  before  said,  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  first,  we  call  the  love  of  wisdom; 
but,  as  this  is  the  love  which  a  man  has  for  his 
own  wisdom,  it  is  the  pride  of  intelligence,  or 
self-conceit."  This  love,  therefore,  is  an  evil 
love ;  and,  if  it  were  allowed  "  to  remain  with 
the  male  human  being,  it  would  destroy"  his 
rationality,  "  by  re-acting  against  the  former, 
and  turning  his  wisdom  into  folly.  It  was  there- 
fore provided,  from  creation,  that  this  latter 
love  should  be  taken  out  of  the  man,  and  im- 
planted in  the  woman,"  so  that  she  might 
become  the  love  of  his  wisdom,  preventing  him 
from  loving  his  own  intelligence  in  excess,  and 
laying  the  foundation  for  a  conjunction  of  minds 
between  them. 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


21 


The  love  which  man  has  for  his  own  wisdom 
is  the  rib,  —  the  intellectual  self-hood,  —  which 
is  taken  out  of  the  man,  and  made  into  a  woman, 
by  which  she  becomes  bone  of  his  bones,  and 
flesh  of  his  flesh.  By  this  beautiful  act  of 
creative  wisdom,  that  which  would  have  be- 
come in  man  the  narrowest  and  most  debasing 
self-love  has  been  transformed  into  an  object  of 
the  most  disinterested  and  ennobling  affection. 
At  the  same  time,  it  is  provided  that  the  wis- 
dom of  the  man  shall  still  be  loved,  and  he  still 
loved  for  his  wisdom ;  not  by  himself,  but  by 
another,  dearer  to  him  than  himself,  whose  love 
shall  have  a  continual  tendency  to  improvement 
and  happiness.  By  this  means,  it  is  also  pro- 
vided that  the  man  shall  be  preserved  in  the 
single  love,  —  the  love  of  growing  wise ;  and 
the  woman  shall  be  kept  in  the  single  love,  — 
the  love  of  his  wisdom :  from  which  both  derive 
their  faculty  and  inclination  to  re-unite,  so  as 
again  to  become,  as  it  were,  one  man." 

From  this  account  of  the  primitive  formation, 
or  original  mental  constitution  of  humanity,  it 
follows,  that,  by  birth,  the  character  of  the  male 
is  intellectual,  and  that  the  female  partakes  more 
of  the  will  principle.  The  male  is  born  into  the 
affection  of  knowing,  of  understanding,  and  of 


22 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


growing  wise ;  and  the  female  is  born  into  the 
love  of  conjoining  herself  with  the  male :  and 
as  the  interiors  form  the  exteriors  to  their  own 
likeness,  therefore  the  sexes  differ  from  each 
other  as  to  the  features  of  the  face,  the  tones  of 
the  voice,  and  the  form  of  the  body.  They  dif- 
fer also  in  their  gestures  and  manners.  In  a 
word,  they  are  not  exactly  similar  in  a  single 
respect.  The  male  principle  in  the  male  is 
masculine  in  every  part  of  his  body,  even  the 
most  minute  ;  and  also  in  every  idea  of  his 
thought,  and  in  every  spark  of  his  affection. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  feminine  principle  in 
the  female. 

In  the  words  of  the  great  English  poet,  de- 
scribing Adam  and  Eve, — 

"  Their  sex  not  equal  seemed : 
For  contemplation  he  and  valor  formed, 
For  softness  she  and  sweet  attractive  grace; 
He  for  God  only,  she  for  God  in  him." 

The  moment  we  come  to  observe  the  sexes 
in  the  practical  development  of  their  social  life, 
we  shall  find  these  distinguishing  characteristics 
displaying  themselves.  Their  several  functions 
and  uses  are  perfectly  distinct  from  each  other, 
and  yet  run  side  by  side  in  two  exactly  parallel 
lines.    Those  of  the  one  correspond  to  those  of 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


23 


the  other,  and  the  two  together  complete  the 
whole  circle  of  social  life. 

The  aptitudes  of  each  sex  fit  it  to  perform  the 
functions  required  of  it,  and  the  inclinations 
of  each  attract  them  to  the  peculiar  duties  de- 
volving upon  them. 

The  male,  in  childhood  and  youth,  delights  in 
a  rougher,  hardier,  more  robust  class  of  sports ; 
and  in  manhood  is  led  to  those  uses  of  a  mechani- 
cal, laboring,  professional,  and  civil  nature,  which 
are  calculated  to  develop  his  peculiarly  intellec- 
tual capacities,  as  well  as  being  fitted  to  his 
hardier  mould  of  body  and  mind. 

The  female,  on  the  other  hand,  has  an  innate 
inclination  to  a  different  class  of  pastimes  and 
amusements,  as  well  as  a  disposition  to  devote 
herself  to  manual  works,  and  offices  and  mini- 
strations of  a  more  quiet,  retiring,  and  domestic 
nature. 

The  more  attentively  these  things  are  exa- 
mined, and  a  minute  observation  given  to  every 
characteristic  of  man  and  woman,  and  to  every 
use,  function,  and  requirement  of  human  society, 
the  more  will  it  be  seen  that  the  inmost  qualities 
of  the  two  natures  are  entirely  distinct,  and  that, 
therefore,  the  functions  of  the  two  are  entirely 
distinct ;  and  the  truth  of  the  following  words 


24 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


of  our  Lord  will  be  more  and  more  confirmed : 
u  But,  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation,  God  made 
tkem  male  and  female.'''1 

f  Another  truth  which  the  careful  and  just  con- 
sideration of  this  divine  institution  brings  to 
light  is  the  perfect  equality  of  the  sexes.  They 
are  two  halves  of  one  whole.  Each  is  the  per- 
fect complement  of  the  other,  and  both,  mutually 
and  equally,  need  and  require  the  other.  No 
truly  human  and  complete  thing  can  be  done 
without  the  consent  and  co-operation  of  both. 
They  are  equally  created  an  image  and  likeness 
of  God,  —  are  equally  possessed  of  the  human 
faculties  of  will  and  understanding.  Both  pos- 
sess freedom  and  rationality  ;  both  possess  simi- 
larly immortal  natures ;  and,  in  the  sight  of  the 
heavenly  Father,  stand  on  precisely  the  same 
footing  with  respect  to  religious  and  eternal, 
life.  / 
Neither  is  superior  to  the  other  in  any  respect. 
The  distinction  between  them  is  that  of  qualita- 
tive difference;  and  not  of  degree,  as  of  more  and 
less,  or  of  higher  and  lower.  Women  are  not 
inferior  to  men  even  in  their  boasted  power  of 
understanding.  Although  the  understanding 
of  the  woman  does  not  manifest  itself  in  the 
same  way  as  does  that  of  the  man,  yet  it  is  none 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


25 


the  less  excellent  on  that  account.  As  we  have 
said,  it  is  of  a  different  quality,  but  not  inferior, 
in  degree  or  power.  The  feminine  intellect  is 
more  perceptive,  and  quicker  in  its  action :  the 
masculine  intellect  is  reflective,  and  compara- 
tively slower.  The  aptitude  of  the  female  mind, 
when  properly  trained,  is  to  a  fine  perception 
of  truth  as  a  practical  principle,  of  its  effect 
in  life,  of  its  beauties  and  uses ;  in  other 
words,  of  the  good  of  the  truth.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  not  constitutionally  fitted  for  that  full, 
rational  analysis  and  severe  study  necessary  for 
pursuing  the  higher  walks  of  intellectual  labor, 
which  are  needed  in  the  search  after  and  eluci- 
dation of  abstract  truth,  and  to  which  the  male 
mind  is  peculiarly  adapted. 

So,  too,  on  the  other  hand,  the  affection  of  the 
man,  domestic  and  social,  is  not  inferior  to  that 
of  woman,  but  different  in  quality.  It  occupies 
a  different  place  in  his  mind  from  what  it  does 
in  hers,  and  therefore  fulfils  a  different  function. 
With  him,  affection  is  innermost,  and  intellect  is 
outermost.  Being  with  him  on  the  surface, 
therefore,  intellect  is  the  most  active  and  the 
most  frequently  displayed,  while  affection  is 
comparativel}r  concealed.  With  her,  on  the  con- 
trary, affection  is  outermost,  and,  being  thus  on 


26 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


the  surface,  is  most  active  and  the  most  continu- 
ally displayed,  while  intellect  is  correspondingly 
concealed. 

From  these  various  considerations,  it  will  have 
been  seen  that  the  difference  of  the  sexes  is  a 
difference  of  equality ;  and  that  the  equality  of 
the  sexes  is  not  an  equality  of  sameness,  but 
of  diversity.  "  Their  diversity  is  the  ground  of 
their  unity."  It  is  because  they  are  so  distinctly 
two  that  they  are  capable  of  becoming  so  com- 
pletely and  perfectly  one.  Each  has  peculiar 
excellences  of  mind  and  disposition  that  are  not 
possessed  by  the  other,  which  are  incommuni- 
cable from  one  to  the  other,  and  which  render 
each  attractive  to  the  other. 

And  this  distinction  of  character,  which  is 
of  divine  ordinance,  having  its  foundations  laid 
in  the  inmost  soul,  ought  to  be  scrupulously 
preserved.  The  more  it  is  preserved  in  man 
and  woman,  the  more  capable  are  they  of  perma- 
nent and  happy  union.  Persons  of  neither  sex 
should  imitate  the  manners  nor  strive  to  acquire 
the  qualities  proper  to  the  other.  It  is  only 
what  is  purely  masculine  in  the  male,  and  what 
is  purely  feminine  in  the  female,  that  can  unite 
together  in  true  conjugial  relationship.  What- 
ever, therefore,  of  mind  or  character,  which  one 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


27 


party  acquires  or  assumes,  that  properly  belongs 
to  the  other,  tends  to  separate  them.  "While  it 
continues,  it  must  obstruct  their  full  interior 
union ;  and  cannot  fail  to  disturb  their  harmony, 
while  it  mars  their  happiness. 

So  important  is  it  that  this  principle  should 
be  acted  upon  in  practical  life,  that  we  find  in 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  a  distinct  prohibition  of 
its  violation.  It  is  given  in  Deut.  xxii.  5: 
"  The  woman  shall  not  wear  that  which  pertain- 
eth  unto  a  man,  neither  shall  a  man  put  on 
a  woman's  garment ;  for  all  that  do  so  are 
abomination  unto  the  Lord  thy  God." 

These  words  are  declaratory  of  a  law  of  divine 
order ;  and,  as  they  occur  in  the  Inspired  Word 
of  God,  we  can  see  that  they  have  a  deeper  mean- 
ing in  them  than  they  appear  to  have  in  the  mere 
letter.  Material  garments,  which  cover  only 
the  body,  have  no  spiritual  character  in  them, 
and  cannot  be  an  abomination  or  otherwise  in 
the  sight  of  God.  Still,  the  precept  in  its  literal 
form  is  a  good  civil  regulation,  and  derives  its 
significance  from  the  correspondence  which  there 
is  between  spiritual  garments  and  natural  gar- 
ments :  for  as  natural  garments  clothe  the  body, 
and  give  it  a  character  as  seen  by  men ;  so  do 
spiritual  garments  clothe  the  mind,  and  give  that 


28 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


its  character  as  it  is  apprehended  by  men.  Spi- 
ritual garments  are  maxims  or  precepts  or  doc- 
trines, which  we  learn  and  approve,  and  which 
we  apply  to  life,  in  our  own  development  and  in 
our  intercourse  with  others :  in  other  words,  they 
are  the  maxims  which  we  live  by,  whether  they 
be  good  or  bad,  true  or  false.  Hence  it  is  seen 
that  they  are  what  form  our  character.  If  these 
maxims  are  genuine  precepts  of  divine  truth, 
then  what  our  minds  wear  will  be  properly 
woven,  our  characters  will  be  rightly  formed, 
and  we  shall  be  clothed  in  wedding  garments. 
The  man  will  not  have  on  what  belongs  to  the 
woman,  nor  the  woman  be  covered  with  what  is 
proper  to  the  man.  The  masculine  principle 
will  not  desire  to  array  itself  in  a  clothing 
of  characteristics  and  ideas  and  qualities  and 
habits  and  manners  which  are  peculiar  to  the 
feminine,  nor  will  the  feminine  principle  seek 
to  attire  itself  in  a  habit  of  qualities  and  man- 
ners which  especially  belong  to  the  male. 

The  masculine  principle  is  given  to  the  male 
by  the  Lord,  the  Creator ;  and  it  is  his  office  to 
give  it  a  right  development.  It  is  his  duty 
to  clothe  it  in  his  own  mind  with  its  appropriate 
kinds  of  mental  acquisition;  to  acquire  know- 
ledge, to  get  understanding,  and  form  ideas.  He 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


•20 


should  strive  to  form  to  himself  a  sound  rational 
judgment,  clear  intelligence,  and  practical  wis- 
dom. This  he  can  do  truly  and  well  only  in  the 
light  of  divine  truth.  He  must  cultivate  in 
himself  a  principle  and  a  hahit  of  obedience  to 
the  precepts  of  the  Holy  Word ;  and  seek  hea- 
venly knowledge  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and 
worldly  knowledge  for  the  sake  of  uses. 

And,  as  he  obtains  this  knowledge  and  wisdom, 
he  must  guard  himself  against  the  evil  of  prid- 
ing himself  on  account  of  it.  Genuine  wisdom 
is  always  accompanied  with  humility ;  and,  if 
he  allows  himself  to  become  enamoured  of  his 
own  endowments  as  to  intelligence  and  judg- 
ment, he  will  grow  conceited,  and  his  wisdom 
will  be  turned  into  folly.  Let  him  preserve, 
spiritually,  the  perpetual  attitude  of  learner: 
thus  will  he  keep  his  mind  open  for  the  recep- 
tion of  continual  influx,  and  that  influx  will 
render  him  wiser  and  better. 

In  order  that  he  may  be  preserved  from  yield- 
ing to  the  temptation  of  falling  in  love  with  his 
own  wisdom  or  his  own  habits  and  manners, 
and  preserved  from  it  in  the  way  intended  by 
the  Divine  Providence,  let  him  seek  to  ally  him- 
self in  marriage  to  one  of  the  opposite  sex,  so 
constituted  and  endowed  as  to  be  able  to  respect 


30  THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 

and  appreciate  his  abilities,  and  who  is  willing 
to  become,  at  first  the  affection  of  his  intelli- 
gence, and  at  length  the  love  of  his  wisdom. 

By  cultivating  the  masculine  principle  in 
himself,  striving  to  clothe  it  with  all  noble  qua- 
lities and  every  manly  virtue,  eschewing  all 
effeminacies,  he  will  render  himself  more  accep- 
table and  attractive  to  that  truly  feminine  ele- 
ment which  it  his  desire  to  associate  to  himself, 
and  he  will  thus  enable  the  object  of  his  choice 
the  more  easily  to  become  what  he  wishes  to 
have  her  become.  She  will  become  pleasing  in 
his  eyes  in  proportion  as  she  can  defer  to  his 
judgment,  and  love  his  wisdom ;  and,  the  sound- 
er that  judgment  is,  the  more  freely  (if  she  be 
rightly  endowed)  will  she  be  able  to  defer  to  it ; 
and,  the  more  that  wisdom  is  cleared  of  unwis- 
dom, —  of  selfishness,  unmanliness,  and  conceit, 
—  the  better  can  she  love  it. 

So,  on  the  other  hand,  the  feminine  principle 
has  been  implanted  in  the  female.  Her  peculiar 
constitution  is  the  direct  gift  of  the  Lord  to  her. 
He  is  good  to  all,  and  His  tender  mercies  are 
over  all  His  works.  Her  form  of  faculties  is  the 
very  best  possible  to  fit  her  to  be  the  companion 
and  helper  of  man.  The  more  she  is  enlight- 
ened in  regard  to  her  adaptations  and  powers, 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


31 


and  is  aware  of  her  peculiar  sphere  and  function, 
the  more  truly  intelligent  may  she  become  ;  and, 
the  more  she  conforms  to  the  laws  of  her  spirits 
ual  and  social  constitution,  the  greater  will  be 
her  happiness. 

She  has  to  clothe  her  mind  with  its  appropri- 
ate habiliments.  She  is  to  acquire  knowledge, 
and  strive  to  be  intelligent  and  wise  in  her 
degree ;  but_  she  is  not  to  enter  into  all  the 
knowledges,  or  strive  to  possess  in  herself  the 
wisdom,  peculiar  to  the  male.  She  is  to  love 
that  wisdom ;  but  she  is  to  love  it  in  another, 
not  in  herself.  If  she  acquires  it  to  herself,  she 
will  incur  the  danger  which  the  man  incurs, — 
of  loving  it  in  herself ;  and  so  of  becoming  con- 
ceited, arrogant,  and  proud  on  that  account. 
But  her  danger  is  greater  than  that  of  the  man : 
for  her  peculiar  innate  faculty  is  the  love  of 
wisdom ;  and  if  she  cultivate  the  masculine  fa- 
culties of  study,  acquiring  knowledge,  and  of 
getting  such  an  understanding  as  the  male  has, 
and  so  of  becoming  wise  in  her  own  right,  she 
is  almost  certain  to  love  that  masculine  princi- 
ple in  herself,  and  thus  to  become  masculine  in 
her  character,  discontented  with  her  own  sphere 
of  duties,  and  unfitted  to  render  home  and  do- 
mestic life  happy. 


32 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


There  is  a  literary  acquirement  as  extensive, 
and  an  intellectual  culture  as  elevated,  as  that 
belonging  to  man,  which  is  proper  to  woman; 
but  the  two  do  not  take  the  same  direction,  nor 
exhibit  the  same  qualities.  The  intelligence  pro- 
per to  the  female  is  in  itself  modest,  elegant,  pa- 
cific, yielding,  soft,  tender;  while  the  intelligence 
which  is  the  proper  characteristic  of  the  male 
is,  respectively,  in  itself  grave,  robust,  harsh, 
hard,  and  daring,  rugged  and  adventurous,  fond 
of  roving,  and  of  ascending  lofty  heights.  It  is 
not  by  cultivating  the  latter  qualities  of  mind 
that  the  female  becomes  attractive  to  the  male : 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  by  avoiding  them,  and  by 
becoming  the  opposite  of  what  he  is  in  these 
respects. 

Her  real  sphere  is  that  of  the  affections,  —  the 
loves  and  amenities,  the  proprieties  and  offices, 
of  private,  social,  and  domestic  life ;  her  pecu- 
liar love,  the  love  of  wisdom  as  it  is  manifested 
in  man.  She  should  study  to  give  development 
to  these  elements  in  herself,  and  to  form  her  cha- 
racter with  reference  to  them ;  guiding  her  foot- 
steps by  the  light  of  heavenly  truth,  and,  in 
humble  dependence  on  the  Lord,  fitting  herself 
to  become  the  affection  of  some  form  of  intelli- 
gence in  the  male. 


THE  IMPLANTED  LAW. 


33 


Thus  proceeding,  the  two  sexes  will  mutually 
prepare  themselves  for  each  other's  society ; 
and  prepare  themselves  to  be  not  only  more  mu- 
tually attractive  to  each  other,  but  also  more 
useful  and  important  to  each  other.  They  will 
thus  enter  into  the  states  provided  for  them  in 
the  laws  of  their  being.  Each  will  be  led  to 
seek  the  complement  or  completion  of  their 
nature,  not  in  themselves,  but  in  the  other. 
They  will  be  aided  in  being  drawn  forth  out  of 
self;  and  by  obeying,  like  dutiful  children,  the 
injunctions  of  the  heavenly  Father,  will  lay  in 
themselves  imperishable  foundations  of  happi- 
ness, not  only  for  the  pure  pleasures  and  mental 
delights  of  the  conjugial  relation  on  earth,  but 
likewise  for  those  ineffable  joys  and  unspeak- 
able satisfactions  which  flow  in  from  the  Lord 
to  similar  conjugial  unions  among  the  angels  in 
heaven. 


3 


CHAPTER  THIRD. 


"  Seek  a  good  wife  of  thy  God; 
For  she  is  the  best  gift  of  His  providence: 
Yet  ask  not  in  bold  confidence 
That  which  He  hath  not  promised. 
Thou  knowest  not  His  good  will : 
Be  thy  prayer,  then,  submissive  thereunto 
And  leave  thy  petition  to  His  mercy, 
Assured  that  He  will  deal  well  with  thee.' 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  BETROTHAL. 

"  The  lord  god  of  heaven,  which  took  me  from  my  fa- 
ther's HOUSE  AND  FROM  THE  LAND  OF  MY  KINDRED,  AND 
WHICH  SPAKE  UNTO  ME,  SAYING,  UNTO  THY  SEED  WILL  I  GIVE 
THIS  LAND;  HE  SHALL  SEND  HIS  ANGEL  BEFORE  THEE,  AND 
THOU  SHALT  TAKE  A  WIFE  UNTO  MY  SON  FROM  THENCE."  — 

Gen.  xxiv.  7. 

TTOW  beautiful  the  incidents  recorded  in  this 
twenty- fourth  chapter  of  Genesis!  It 
contains,  indeed,  the  very  poetry  of  history. 
"With  what  a  divine  dignity  does  the  general 
march  of  the  narrative  proceed !  and  yet  with 
what  touching  and  minute  simplicity  are  the  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  story  related  !  It  strikes 
one  of  the  tenderest  chords  in  the  human  heart, 
and  has  been  read  with  equal  interest  by  all  the 
nations  and  by  all  the  ages.  Time  does  not 
wear  it  out,  nor  circumstances  change  it:  it 
is  as  new  and  fresh  to-day,  and  comes  home 
as  nearly  to  our  human  affections  here  and 


38 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


now,  as  it  did  to  Arabian  shepherds  or  to 
J ewish  tradesmen  three  or  four  thousand  years 
ago. 

As  man  is  essentially  a  religious  being,  this 
element  of  love  in  our  nature,  like  every  other, 
finds  its  true  development  only  as  it  is  exercised 
in  obedience  to  religious  truth.  "We  are  born 
with  the  natural  part  of  our  minds  depraved  as 
to  inclination  or  bias  ;  and  the  simple  love  for 
the  opposite  sex,  as  it  first  operates  in  the  feel- 
ings, is  a  merely  natural  propensity.  Like  all 
the  other  natural  inclinations  or  desires,  it  re- 
quires regeneration.  It  needs  to  be  acted  upon 
by  the  rational  and  spiritual  parts  of  the  mind, 
and  to  be  subordinated  and  held  in  subjection  to 
them.  It  has  most  important  and  indispensable 
uses  to  perform  in  the  economy  of  human  life ; 
and  it  should  be  made  to  serve  in  those  uses,  in 
strict  obedience  to  the  commands  of  Him  who 
framed  the  faculties  of  the  soul,  and  who  has 
mercifully  revealed  to  us,  through  His  Word, 
some  of  its  principal  necessities  and  laws. 

Unless  we  thus  treat  this  inclination,  unless 
it  be  restrained  and  guided  and  qualified  by  a 
determinately  religious  principle,  it  remains  na- 
tural, having  a  continual  tendency  downward  to 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


30 


what  is  impure  and  unheavenly  and  unclean. 
This  downward  tendency  is,  of  course,  always  to 
be  resisted.  Let  every  thing,  therefore,  which 
goes  to  impair  perfect  purity  in  this  respect, 
whether  in  thought  or  word  or  look  or  action, 
be  studiously  avoided  and  left  out  of  the  con- 
duct. 

As  this  love  is  pervaded  by  a  genuine  reli- 
gious principle,  and  is  exercised  in  obedience 
to  the  Lord's  commandments,  its  whole  cha- 
racter is  gradually  changed.  From  being  a 
merely  natural  propensity,  which  man  has  in 
common  with  the  animal  creation,  it  becomes  at 
length  a  spiritualized  desire,  rational  in  its 
order,  and  truly  human  in  all  its  ways.  The 
operation  of  holy  truth  is  to  exalt  it  and  lift  it 
up.  Its  strength  is  not  abated,  its  pleasures 
are  not  diminished,  by  the  process  ;  but  its  qua- 
lities are  changed,  and  its  objects  rightly  defined. 
Things  not  proper  to  it  being  refused,  it  loses 
by  degrees  every  element  of  grossness,  and 
continually  becomes  more  and  more  imbued 
with  what  is  essentially  pure  and  clean:  and, 
as  this  state  advances,  its  satisfactions  are  in- 
creased ;  for  the  Lord  can  flow  in  with  His 
Spirit  where  His  precepts  are  obeyed,  and  com- 
municate unspeakable  delights. 


40 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


Let  us  look  a  moment  at  a  few  general  princi- 
ples, by  way  of  further  introduction  to  this 
subject. 

True  marriage  consists  in  the  union  of  two 
only  ;  that  is,  in  the  union  of  one  man  with  one 
woman.  Such  is  the  precept  given  in  the  Sa- 
cred Scripture,  and  such  is  the  uniform  teaching 
of  the  Christian  religion. 

This  is  a  doctrine,  too,  which  reason  corrobo- 
rates, and  observation  everywhere  confirms.  It 
flows  along  in  harmony  with  all  the  analogies 
of  the  subject.  The  unions  which  correspond 
to  marriage  and  are  emblems  of  it,  both  in  the 
natural  and  spiritual  worlds,  are  conjunctions 
between  two.  While  the  more  strictly  this  is 
the  case,  the  more  nearly  do  those  emblematic 
forms  image  the  higher  or  truly  human  mar- 
riage. 

The  observance  of  this  law  is  essential ;  for 
it  lies  in  the  very  inmost  framework  of  the  soul. 
The  constitution  of  the  human  mind  requires 
that  the  conjugial  relation  should  be  between  one 
husband  and  one  wife :  hence  the  precept  in  the 
gospel  is  not  merely  a  forensic  regulation,  which 
we  are  legally  bound  to  obey;  but  also  a  divine, 
authoritative  declaration  of  the  constitutional 
fact.    The   principle   we  are  contemplating, 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


41 


therefore,  is  not  a  truth  of  one  degree  only, 
operating  on  a  single  plane,  or  level ;  bnt  is  fun- 
damental, striking  down  through  all  planes  and 
degrees.  It  is  a  natural  truth,  physical,  civil, 
and  moral ;  while  it  is  also  spiritual,  heavenly, 
and  divine. 

In  the  light  of  this  law,  there  may  be  seen 
many  of  the  duties  that  spring  out  of  this  rela- 
tion ;  and  some  of  these  commence  long  before 
marriage  itself  takes  place.  They  begin,  indeed, 
in  the  latter  period  of  youth,  when  that  com- 
merce between  the  sexes  is  initiated  which 
occurs  in  the  common  intercourse  of  society. 
Much  may  be  done  by  parents  and  teachers  in 
educating  young  people  to  prepare  them  for  this 
period,  and  to  give  them  practical  aid  and  gui- 
dance after  they  have  entered  it.  Marriage  is 
one  of  the  ends  for  which  they  were  created. 
They  were  made  to  come  together,  to  associate 
with  each  other,  to  select  companions,  to  enjoy 
friendships,  and  to  form  unions ;  and  this  gene- 
ral fact  deserves  to  be  never  pushed  aside  or 
left  out  of  view. 

This  mutual  attraction  between  the  two  sexes 
of  the  human  family  —  what  a  well-spring  of 
delight  it  is  to  young  and  old  !    The  imaginative 


42 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


thought  of  its  youthful  period  has  furnished  the 
fairest  fields  in  the  romance  of  the  world's  lite- 
rature, and  tinges  with  the  light  of  joy  and  hope 
many  a  landscape  in  the  early  experience  of  all, 
that  otherwise  would  have  been  given  over  to 
the  realms  of  shadow  and  coldness. 

"  If  thou  art  to  have  a  wife  of  thy  youth,  she 
is  now  living  on  the  earth :  therefore  think  of 
her,  and  pray  for  her  weal ;  yea,  though  thou 
hast  not  seen  her."  A  truly  beautiful  and  use- 
ful suggestion.  But  why  confine  it  to  one  side 
or  one  sex  alone  ?  Why  may  not  both  the  pro- 
spective parties  in  this  holy  relation  lift  up 
their  thoughts  and  affections,  each  for  the 
other,  to  Him  who  sitteth  on  high?  There- 
fore we  say  to  the  youth  of  both  sexes,  with 
respect  to  the  future  though  possibly  undis- 
covered partner,  "  Think  of  and  pray  for  him 
or  her." 

In  its  early  stages,  this  love  is  indetermi- 
nate in  its  object,  and  therefore  general  and 
indiscriminate  in  its  attentions.  Its  first  and 
normal  state  is  one  of  search  for  a  partner  with 
whom  to  ally  itself;  and,  until  such  an  alliance 
is  formed,  the  seeking  attitude  is  of  course 
maintained,  and  the  advances  made  and  re- 
ceived on  either  side  are  different  from  what 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


43 


afterwards  they  become.  This  period  has  joys 
peculiar  to  itself :  it  is  the  morning  of  the  un- 
derstanding, and  the  spring-time  of  the  heart. 
To  the  dawning  light  of  the  one,  therefore,  it 
adds  the  glowing  impulse  and  bursting  life  of 
the  other,  and  is  filled  with  all  the  promises 
of  expectation  and  hope. 

A  thoughtful  and  sententious  writer,  address- 
ing the  young  man  at  this  period,  has  happily 
said,  "  Pray  for  him  or  her,  that  the  Almighty 
may  keep  and  strengthen  and  prepare  you  both 
for  those  mutual  services  which  one  day  you 
will  be  called  to  render  unto  each  other."  Is 
it  not  an  inspiring  and  helpful  thought,  that,  in 
our  youthful  days,  we  may  look  up  to  our 
heavenly  Father  thus,  and  ask  Him,  in  reve- 
rence and  love,  to  protect  and  lead,  in  His  all- 
seeing  providence,  the  unhnoicn  one  to  whom 
hereafter  we  are  to  become  united  by  ties  so 
peculiar  and  endearing?  "We  are  told  in  the 
Writings  of  the  Church,  that  it  is  lawful  to  ask 
of  the  Lord  a  legitimate  and  lovely  union  for 
ourselves  with  one  of  the  opposite  sex.  ';  Yet." 
as  the  poet  says,  "  ask  not  in  bold  confidence  that 
which  He  hath  not  promised.  Thou  knowest 
not  His  good  will:  be  thy  prayer,  therefore, 
submissive  thereunto ;  and  leave  thy  petition  to 


44 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


His  mercy,  assured  that  He  will  deal  well  with 
thee  ;  "  and  the  prayer  for  our  own  preparation 
and  leading,  with  the  blessing  invoked  for  the 
partner,  will  descend  as  a  refreshment  upon 
the  heart,  bringing  down  with  it  a  benediction 
from  on  high. 

A  principal  thought,  which  occurs  here  as 
important  to  impress,  is  the  value  of  honesty  in 
the  intercourse  of  the  sexes.  Nowhere  else 
does  the  manly  and  womanly  virtue  of  sincerity 
shine  with  a  more  conspicuous  lustre  than  when 
performing  its  duties  here.  Let  singleness  of 
purpose,  with  openness  of  conduct  and  frankness 
of  manner,  not  overstepping  the  just  bounds  of 
a  prudent  reserve,  by  all  means  be  cultivated. 
If  we  adopt  the  principle  of  Christian  righteous- 
ness as  the  general  rule  by  which  we  mean  to 
live,  we  shall  seldom  be  at  a  loss  how  to  decide 
in  favor  of  pui'ity  and  sincerity  in  the  special 
cases  that  arise. 

As  youth  advances,  the  love  which  at  first  was 
vague  and  general  in  its  objects  has  a  tendency 
to  become  special  or  definite  in  its  addresses. 
Instead  of  wandering  to  all  or  to  many  of  the 
opposite  sex,  it  prefers  to  select  a  few  individu- 
als, or  perhaps  a  single  one,  upon  whom  to 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


45 


bestow  its  attentions.  And  this  is  a  change  of 
character  very  proper  for  it  to  assume,  —  a 
change  that  comes  in  the  order  of  the  true  laws 
of  its  nature ;  for,  as  clearly  implied  in  what  has 
been  said  before,  true  conjugial  love  is  of  such 
a  nature,  that  it  cannot  subsist  in  any  mind 
towards  more  than  one  of  the  opposite  sex. 
Viewed  in  its  highest  results,  as  it  is  realized  in 
the  heavenly  world,  it  is  a  union  between  two 
purified  souls.  To  divide  it  between  different 
objects  would  be  to  destroy  it.  Now,  as  one 
of  the  principal  uses  of  the  union  here  below 
is  to  prepare  us  for  the  heavenly  union  here- 
after, we  can  see  that  the  time  ought  to  arrive 
here,  when  the  attentions  of  this  love  are  all  di- 
rected to  one,  and,  as  they  are  received  and 
reciprocated  by  that  one,  should  be  withheld 
and  withdrawn  from  all  others ;  being  reserved 
for  and  bestowed  entirely  upon  that  single 
object. 

Wrapped  up  in  this  general  truth,  we  shall 
find  concealed  most  of  the  maxims  necessary  for 
the  period  of  courtship.  Honesty  of  intention, 
and  singleness  of  purpose,  are  everywhere  the 
simple  rule.  Let  the  attentions  shown  be  al- 
ways the  fair  representatives  of  the  sentiments 
carried  within.    It  is  true,  that  the  growth  of 


46 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


this  sentiment  in  a  given  direction  is  often  very 
gradual,  and  sometimes  the  degree  of  growth 
does  not  come  fully  into  the  consciousness  of  the 
person  in  whom  it  occurs :  but  we  are  sure  that 
we  can  always  do  so  much  as  this ;  namely,  we 
can  refrain  from  indulging  a  desire  to  mislead 
another  in  regard  to  our  feelings  or  intentions. 
We  can  refrain  from  a  design  to  convey  a  false 
impression,  as  well  as  from  manners  and  atten- 
tions calculated  to  say  more  than  the  heart 
means.  Deceptions  practised  in  affairs  of  this 
kind  belong  to  the  worst  species  of  dishonesty; 
and  the  one  who  pursues  them  gives  us  the  best 
possible  grounds  for  distrusting  his  integrity  in 
other  things. 

Need  we  add  to  this,  that  addresses  of  a  spe- 
cial nature  ought  neither  to  be  paid  to  nor 
encouraged  from  two  different  persons  at  the 
same  time  ?  While  they  are  offered  or  bestowed 
in  one  place,  they  should  be  withheld  from  all 
others ;  and,  while  they  are  accepted  and  re- 
ceived from  one  source,  they  should  be  discou- 
raged from  every  other.  It  does  not  accord 
with  the  precepts  of  true  order  to  retain  the 
wandering  habit  after  the  wandering  period  pro- 
perly has  passed ;  while  the  clearest  dictates  of 
justice  unite  in  declaring,  that  our  intentions 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


47 


ought  always  in  reality  to  be  just  what  we  have 
designedly  made  them  seem  to  be  to  the  person 
most  deeply  interested  in  them. 

But  how  shall  we  treat  the  next  stage  of  this 
interesting  development?  What  can  we  say 
here  to  the  young,  more  than  what  a  firm  reli- 
gious principle  will  naturally  be  apt  to  suggest 
to  all  thoughtful  or  ingenuous  minds  ?  Perhaps 
not  many  things  ;  and  yet  a  few  words  of  appro- 
priate advice  seem  nearly  indispensable. 

First,  then,  in  regard  to  the  selection  of  a 
partner  for  life.  It  will  readily  occur,  that  qua-  ^ 
lities  of  mind  and  character  are  to  be  regarded 
far  more  than  every  attraction  of  a  fortuitous 
or  exterior  nature.  Trifles  ought  not  to  be 
allowed  to  win  us  or  determine  our  love  in  so 
important  a  connection  as  this.  Simple  accom- 
plishments, though  by  no  means  to  be  despised, 
are  never  sufficient  of  themselves  to  satisfy,  for 
any  length  of  time,  the  just  demands  of  the 
heart ;  while  affections  grounded  in  mere  senti- 
ment or  on  natural  or  worldly  considerations 
possess  little  of  the  principle  of  real  constancy, 
and  seldom  fail  to  disappoint,  in  the  end,  the  par- 
ties so  forgetful  of  the  dictates  of  true  wisdom 
as  to  found  their  union  upon  them.    Those  en- 


-IS 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


during  elements  of  character,  which  are  right 
and  commendable  in  themselves,  contain  in  them 
real  beauty  ;  offering  at  the  same  time  the  surest 
foundation  for  a  virtuous  union,  and  the  best  se- 
curity to  permanent  happiness :  to  which,  also, 
similarity  of  general  tastes,  with  congeniality 
of  disposition  and  equality  of  acquirement,  will 
severally  contribute  their  important  helps. 

After  exercising  freely  one's  own  rational 
perceptions  in  the  matter,  additional  safety  will 
be  found  in  having  recourse  to  the  superior 
judgment  and  larger  experience  of  parents  or 
other  elders,  who  are  bound  to  us  by  similar 
ties  of  affection  and  interest.  Thus  will  the 
errors  of  a  precipitate  haste  be  avoided;  for 
they  may  perceive  objectionable  features  which 
the  inexperienced  eyes  of  the  young  have  failed 
to  discover. 

Sincere  and  upright  minds  will  almost  inevi- 
tably be  led  to  ask  themselves  some  serious 
questions  in  prospect  of  this  relation.  "  Can  I  be 
useful  to  the  proposed  partner  ?  "  and,  "  Can  we 
be  mutually  useful  to  each  other  ?  Is  the  union 
one  that  seems  calculated  to  promote  the  re- 
generation of  both  ?  or  are  there  probabilities  of 
its  being  detrimental  to  this  process  in  either 
of  us  ?  "    These  are  most  important  inquiries, 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


49 


demanding  calm  and  serious  answers.  "We  shall 
undoubtedly  give  utterance  to  a  perfectly  cor- 
rect maxim,  if  we  say,  that  the  interests  of  the 
spiritual  life  are  never  to  be  subordinated  to 
the  apparent  interests  of  the  natural  life :  and 
a  connection  which  has  every  prospect  of  sur- 
rounding us  with  influences  adverse  to  Our 
growth  in  the  spiritual  life  cannot  be  sought  or 
entered  with  that  thorough  clearness  of  the  con- 
science in  which  we  ought  to  endeavor  always 
to  act ;  nor  can  we,  in  any  just  sincerity  of  heart, 
look  up  to  the  heavenly  Father  to  invoke  His 
blessing  upon  it. 

Just  at  this  point,  too,  there  arises  another 
question  which  frequently  occupies  the  thoughts 
of  some,  and  one  which  religious  minds  have 
put  for  many  ages  before :  that  is,  How  far  is 
it  lawful  to  marry  out  of  the  Church?  It  may  be 
somewhat  difficult  to  give  a  precise  answer  to 
this  which  shall  be  infallible  for  all  cases,  so 
many  are  the  modifying  circumstances  that  sur- 
round us  in  life,  not  unfrequently  dictating  a 
course  of  conduct  that  would  be  inexpedient  in 
other  circumstances ;  an  exception  to  the  gene- 
ral rule,  and  contrary  to  the  usual  maxims  of 
propriety.  The  most  we  can  do,  therefore,  is  to 
unfold  a  general  principle,  leaving  it  to  indivi- 
4 


50 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


dual  discretion  and  judgment  to  make  the 
necessary  applications  of  it  to  particular  in- 
stances. We  are  enabled  to  make  a  declaration 
of  the  highest  law  on  this  subject  with  great 
clearness  and  simplicity :  for  the  truths  relating 
to  it  have  been  definitely  revealed  for  our  use 
in'  the  Writings  of  tbe  New  Jerusalem ;  and 
these  teach,  that  similarity  of  religious  convic- 
tion and  belief  is  a  very  important  constituent 
in  a  true  marriage  union.  Several  principal 
reasons  for  this  appear  quite  obvious  as  soon 
as  the  subject  begins  to  be  considered ;  for,  as 
already  seen,  the  final  object  of  marriage  ia 
to  join  two  persons  in  mind  and  heart,  so  as  to 
render  them  at  last,  in  many  important  respects, 
one.  The  law  of  its  life,  therefore,  is,  that  it 
constantly  looks  towards  a  union  of  souls  be- 
tween the  two  parties  who  have  entered  into  it. 
Now,  as  we  are  taught,  the  religious  element, 
where  it  exists  as  a  firm  or  rational  conviction, 
is  in  the  highest  part  of  the  mind,  being  supe- 
rior or  interior  to  the  other  parts ;  and  is  the 
faculty  into  which  we  receive  those  good  influ- 
ences, which,  in  the  Divine  Providence  of  the 
Lord,  are  bestowed  upon  us  from  the  spiritual 
world.  Our  faith,  therefore,  or,  in  other  words, 
our  conscientious  convictions  of  religion,  serve 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


51 


to  mould  the  character  and  determine  the  quality 
of  the  life  far  more  than  any  other  influences  to 
which  we  are  subject.  And  as  persons  of  oppos- 
ing or  contrary  convictions  in  regard  to  religion 
receive  the  spiritual  influences  that  flow  into 
their  minds  from  opposite  or  contrary  sources, 
or  through  opposite  or  contrary  mediums,  the 
spiritual  disadvantages  of  such  a  union  become 
at  once  apparent ;  for  not  only  are  they  sepa- 
rated as  to  the  most  interior  things  of  their 
minds  (the  point  at  which,  above  all  others,  there 
should  be  union),  but  the  constant  tendency  of 
the  religious  instruction  they  respectively  im- 
bibe, as  well  as  the  religious  influence  they 
receive,  is  to  draw  them,  in  this  respect,  still 
more  widely  apart :  and  this  tendency  would  be 
strong  and  operative  in  the  degree  that  each 
should  become  confirmed  in  the  thought  and 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  their  respective  princi- 
ples. The  more  nearly  any  two  forms  of  religion 
are  related  to  each  other,  the  less  is  the  objec- 
tion arising  from  this  source ;  while  the  incon- 
veniences and  dangers  of  such  a  union  increase 
in  proportion  as  the  difference  between  them  is 
greater. 

We  can  perceive,  therefore,  at  a  glance,  how 
desirable  it  is,  to  say  the  least,  that  marriages 


52 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


should  be  contracted  for  the  most  part  between 
persons  imbued  with  similar  principles  of  reli- 
gion. It  is  quite  true,  and  a  truth  we  do  not 
wish  to  have  forgotten,  that  partners  of  differ- 
ent religions  may  come  into  a  good  degree  of 
mental  union,  may  live  in  obedience  to  the 
Lord's  commandments,  may  perform  well  their 
duties  to  each  other  respecting  all  the  bonds  of 
marriage,  exercising  mutual  love,  and  living 
very  happily  together  all  their  days  in  the 
natural  world.  All  we  have  meant  to  do  is 
simply  to  declare  the  highest  spiritual  law  on 
this  subject,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are 
desiring  for  themselves  an  interior  conjugial 
union,  and  are  willing,  therefore,  to  take  the 
steps  which  lead  up  towards  it. 

It  may  be  that  this  truth  is  one  of  those  to 
which  are  applicable  the  words  that  our  Lord 
used  on  a  certain  occasion :  "  But  He  said  unto 
them,  All  men  cannot  receive  this  saying,  save 
they  to  whom  it  is  given."  But  it  is  revealed 
for  the  instruction  of  those  who  can  receive  it, 
being  willing  to  obey  it ;  opening  to  them  a  gate 
to  more  exalted  and  more  enduring  blessedness, 
and  conducting  them  one  stage  further  in  the 
pathway  to  heaven :  while  it  is,  undoubtedly,  a 
truth  of  higher  importance  to  those  who  have 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


53 


begun  to  walk  in  the  light  of  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem than  to  others  ;  for  to  them  it  has  been 
given  to  come  to  some  knowledge  of  the  spirit- 
ual sense  of  the  Holy  "Word,  and  of  the  laws 
which  govern  the  life  after  death. 

This  general  law  appears  not  unfrequently  in 
the  natural  or  obvious  meaning  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, but  always  clothed  and  modified  so  as  to 
adapt  it  to  the  recipient  states  of  men.  See, 
for  instance,  how  beautifully  the  light  of  this 
truth  is  made  to  shine  forth  —  with  the  ex- 
treme directness  of  its  beam  a  little  parried, 
and  its  fullest  brilliancy  softened  to  the  unused 
spiritual  eye  by  the  cloud  of  the  letter  —  in 
this  passage  of  the  chapter  already  mentioned : 
"  And  Abraham  said  unto  his  eldest  servant  of 
his  house,  that  ruled  over  all  that  he  had,  Put, 
I  pray  thee,  thy  hand  under  my  thigh :  and  I 
will  make  thee  swear  by  the  Lord,  the  God  of 
heaven  and  the  God  of  the  earth,  that  thou  shalt 
not  take  a  wife  unto  my  son  of  the  daughters  of 
the  Canaanites  among  whom  I  dwell ;  but  thou 
shalt  go  unto  my  country  and  to  my  kindred, 
and  take  a  wife  unto  my  son  Isaac." 

Thus,  in  the  very  beginnings  of  the  Church, 
when  the  numbers  were  too  few  to  afford  a 
wide  range  for  choice,  rather  than  contract 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


marriage  with  a  religious  principle  wholly  op- 
posed, and  therefore  destructive  of  the  Church, 
it  was  directed  that  an  alliance  should  be  sought 
at  a  great  distance  with  one  the  most  nearly 
related  in  religious  principle  of  any  that  could 
then  be  found  ;  for  Nahor  and  Bethuel  belonged 
to  the  remnant  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  Church. 
And  from  correspondence  we  know,  that  by 
the  command  to  seek  a  wife  in  one's  own 
country,  and  among  one's  own  kindred,  is 
meant,  in  the  spiritual  sense,  to  seek  among 
one's  own  spiritual  kindred,  who  are  in  a  simi- 
lar religious  principle. 

This  law  was  afterwards  embodied  in  a  pre- 
cept for  the  Jewish  Church,  and  became  a 
fixed  regulation  of  their  polity.  With  refer- 
ence to  the  nations  round  about  them,  it  is 
said,  "  Neither  shalt  thou  make  marriages  with 
them :  thy  daughter  thou  shalt  not  give  unto 
his  son,  nor  his  daughter  shalt  thou  take  unto 
thy  son ;  for  they  will  turn  away  thy  son  from 
following  Me,  that  they  may  serve  other  gods  " 
(Deut.  vii.  3).  And  one  of  the  charges  brought 
against  Solomon  was,  that  he  loved  many  strange 
women,  and  married  foreign  princesses,  by  whom 
his  heart  was  turned  away  to  other  and  false 
religious  principles. 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


55 


The  thought  may  arise  with  some,  that  obe- 
dience to  this  rule,  in  our  times,  might,  in  many 
cases,  limit  the  freedom  of  selection  within  very 
narrow  bounds ;  and  hence  not  unfrequently, 
perhaps,  be  productive  of  disagreeable  results. 
A  doubt  somewhat  akin  to  this  seems  to  have 
been  suggested  in  the  mind  of  Abraham's  ser- 
vant, after  receiving  his  directions;  for  he  says 
in  his  reply  to  his  master,  "  Peradventure  the 
woman  will  not  be  willing  to  follow  me  unto  this 
land."  As,  then,  it  might  not  be  easy  to  find  a 
willing  partner  within  the  restricted  limits  of  a 
single  kindred  ;  so,  now,  a  similar  difficulty  may 
sometimes  arise  within  the  limits  of  a  single 
church.  But  the  reply  which  the  servant  re- 
ceived to  his  doubting  suggestion  removes  all 
moral  difficulty  from  our  way,  and  renders  the 
path  of  duty,  under  all  circumstances,  eminently 
clear  and  plain. 

First,  trust  in  the  Lord  is  exhibited,  and  that 
delightful  aspect  of  the  Divine  Providence,  in 
which  partners  mutually  adapted  are  watched 
over  with  tenderest  care,  and  preserved,  and 
at  length,  when  the  proper  time  arrives,  are  un- 
erringly led  to  find  each  other,  by  the  heaven- 
ly Father,  is  most  touchingly  and  beautifully 
brought  forth :  "  And  Abraham  said  unto  him. 


56 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


.  .  .  The  Lord  God  of  heaven,  which  took  me 
from  my  father's  house  and  from  the  land  of  my 
kindred,  and  which  spake  unto  me,  and  that 
sware  unto  me,  saying,  Unto  thy  seed  will  I 
give  this  land;  He  shall  send  His  angel  before 
thee,  and  thou  shalt  take  a  wife  unto  my  son  from 
thence." 

Abraham  relied  on  the  promises  and  provi- 
dence of  the  Lord :  he  was  resolved  to  act  in 
accordance  with  the  highest  truth  to  which  he 
had  been  called ;  and  he  had  no  doubt  that 
angelic  influences  would  attend  on  the  perform- 
ance of  duty,  making  the  way  prosperous,  and 
bringing  the  whole  enterprise  to  a  successful 
and  happy  result.  And  what  need  have  we  of 
any  better  lesson  in  this  respect  ?  Why  not 
we,  with  equal  confidence  in  the  love  and 
mercy,  and  tender,  watchful  care,  of  the  heaven- 
ly Parent,  pursue  the  highest  truth  we  know, 
trusting  in  Him  to  render  our  search  success- 
ful, and  to  bring  our  journey  to  a  happy  ter- 
mination, especially  as  we  have  given  us  so 
much  rational  doctrine  concerning  providential 
laws  and  heavenly  influences? 

But  though  this  is  the  straight  path,  and  the 
one  in  which  every  truly  regenerating  one  will 
rather  choose  to  walk,  yet  the  way  to  a  different 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


57 


issue,  where  success  does  not  attend  our  efforts 
in  this,  is  not  entirely  closed  up  ;  for,  in  the  reply 
given  to  the  servant,  —  after  the  words  we  have 
already  quoted,  —  Abraham  continues  :  "  And  if 
the  woman  will  not  be  willing  to  follow  thee, 
then  thou  shalt  be  clear  from  this  my  oath." 
Where  there  is  wanting  the  ability  to  practise 
the  highest  order  of  truth,  there  the  application 
of  a  lower  rule  of  life  becomes  admissible. 
And  it  sometimes  pleases  the  Lord  to  give  us 
a  marriage-union  quite  different  from  the  one 
we  would  picture  to  ourselves  in  thought :  so, 
if  He  denies  us  the  realization  of  our  highest, 
and  what  we  may  esteem  the  most  spiritual, 
desire  of  our  hearts,  in  this  relation,  leading 
us  by  the  seeming  pressure  of  outward  cir- 
cumstances to  form  a  different  connection,  we 
may  be  sure  that  He  has  some  high  purpose 
with  respect  to  us  to  accomplish  by  this  means. 
The  final  union,  for  the  most  part,  is  not  in  this 
world.  The  connection  here  is  principally  for 
discipline,  and  preparation  for  the  union  here- 
after. "We  may,  for  our  good,  therefore  require 
a  partner  here  differing  much  from  our  ideal 
portrait,  and  much  from  the  one  we  could 
finally  be  happy  with.  Many  things  in  our  cha- 
racters have  need  of  being  changed  :  there  are 


58 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


qualities  pointing  in  some  directions,  requir- 
ing retrenchment  and  softening  down ;  others 
are  deficient,  and  need  stimulating  into  greater 
activity,  or  to  be  developed  into  more  promi- 
nence. Our  motives  of  conduct  need  constant 
elevation  to  higher  purity;  and  we  are  some- 
times permitted  to  commit  mistakes,  in  order 
to  show  us  the  way  up  to  a  higher  spiritual 
dwelling-place.  We  may  have  been  disposed 
to  place  too  low  an  estimate  upon  the  religious 
truth  in  which  we  have  been  educated,  and 
are  led  to  form  a  union  in  which  we  shall  be 
enabled  to  see  the  inestimable  value  of  that 
which  before  we  had  too  lightly  esteemed. 

Thus,  whatever  the  connection  we  at  length 
find  ourselves  settled  in  for  life,  we  may  be  as- 
sured, that,  all  things  considered,  it  is  the  right 
one  for  us,  —  the  one,  on  the  whole,  best  fitted 
to  develop  our  character,  to  bring  to  light  and 
remove  our  faults  and  defects,  to  promote  our 
regeneration,  and  thus  to  prepare  us  for  living 
in  the  heavenly  world. 

Let  no  one  who  is  married,  therefore,  be  too 
easily  cast  down  or  disturbed  by  the  thought 
that  he  or  she  has  not  made  the  best  selection, 
or  is  not  conjoined  with  the  right  connubial  part- 
ner.   It  will  prove  to  be  the  right  one  for  our 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


59 


growth  in  goodness,  and  for  our  final  happiness, 
if  we  make  the  best  use  we  can  of  our  advan- 
tages, performing  faithfully  and  well  the  duties 
which  we  owe  in  this  divinely  instituted  rela- 
tion. We  should  endeavor  to  live  in  all  things 
as  though  it  were  the  right  one,  and  the  mer- 
ciful Saviour  will  not  fail  to  bless  the  dutiful 
effort. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  no  partner  is  found,  and 
no  union  ever  formed,  in  the  natural  world,  it 
ought  not  to  be  the  occasion  of  sorrow  or  of 
any  painful  regrets.  There  are  reasons  in  the 
divine  economy,  applicable  to  our  case,  for  this 
peculiar  provision  in  regard  to  our  lot.  Single- 
ness will  then,  we  may  rest  assured,  afford  us, 
on  the  whole,  the  best  opportunity  we  can  have, 
with  our  traits  of  character,  to  fit  us  for  eternal 
life,  by  purifying  us  of  our  evils,  and  so  prepar- 
ing us  for  the  heavenly  union,  which  is  to  last 
for  ever,  and  into  which  it  is  the  gracious  design 
of  our  heavenly  Parent  to  lead  us. 

But  after  the  period  of  search  has  issued  in 
finding,  and  mutual  understanding  has  ripened 
into  full  consent,  then  follows  the  betrothal: 
with  which,  ancient  custom  used  to  connect  a 
formal  ceremony,  that  has  latterly  fallen  out  of 


CO 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


practice ;  but,  withal,  a  beneficial  observance, 
and  one  every  way  worthy  of  being  revived. 
When  an  agreement  of  marriage  has  been  made 
between  two  parties,  their  relations  to  each 
other  become  thereby  changed  in  some  impor- 
tant respects.  New  duties  in  regard  to  each 
other  begin  to  develop  themselves,  —  duties 
which  look  forward  to  the  future  connection 
they  are  intending  to  form.  A  state  of  affec- 
tion  is  then  beginning  to  grow  up  in  the  mind 
of  each  for  the  other,  which  very  nearly  resem- 
bles the  love  by  which  they  are  to  be  united 
after  they  have  become  married  partners :  and 
it  is  liighly  important  that  this  young  love,  so 
free  and  spontaneous  in  its  offerings,  should  be 
carefully  tended  and  guarded ;  having  protection 
given  it  against  whatsoever  might  impair  its  pu- 
rity, or  chill  its  appropriate  ardor,  or  injure  its 
continued  growth.  True  conjugial  love  —  some 
principle  of  which  is  so  deeply  implanted  in  the 
human  mind,  especially  of  the  female,  as  already 
seen  —  seeks,  by  the  law  of  its  life,  to  be  more 
and  more  intimately  conjoined  in  mind  to  the 
one  partner,  and  to  no  other :  hence  any  thing 
which  stands  in  the  way,  tending  to  prevent  or 
obstruct  this  conjunction,  weakens  the  love,  and 
hinders   its  growth.     The  truest  happiness, 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


61 


therefore,  will  be  found  in  avoiding  every  thing 
that  needlessly  offends  or  crosses  these  new 
desires.  Neither  party  should  be  willing  to 
hurt  or  injure  these  tender  feelings  existing 
in  the  mind  of  the  other.  There  are  certain 
attentions,  and  outward  marks  of  affection  and 
respect,  that  belong  peculiarly  to  this  period, 
which  each  party  has  a  right  to  expect  from  the 
other,  which,  if  thoughtlessly  or  capriciously 
bestowed  on  or  encouraged  from  another,  dis- 
turb these  affections,  and  inflict  an  injury  upon 
them.  Hence  they  are  to  be  guarded  with  a 
proper  jealousy,  and  never  treated  with  levity 
or  fickleness  in  any  stage  of  their  develop- 
ment. 

The  time  between  engagement  and  marriage 
should  not  be  too  short.  There  is  no  need  to 
consummate  with  too  much  haste  the  nuptial 
ceremony :  there  are  many  useful  things  to  be 
gained  by  a  little  delay.  The  thoughts  and 
affections  of  the  parties  are  determined  a  good 
deal  to  each  other ;  they  are  beginning  to  re- 
gard each  other  as  partners ;  and  a  little  time 
will  give  these  feelings  and  thoughts  oppor- 
tunity to  take  root,  and  become  more  deeply 
implanted.  A  surer  foundation  for  future  hap- 
piness may  thus  be  laid :  for  the  disposition  of 


62 


THE  BETROTHAL. 


each  is  gradually  forming  to  meet  the  tastes  and 
peculiarities  of  the  other ;  while  a  spirit  of  mu- 
tual forbearance  and  concession  pervades  the 
period,  in  which  it  is  comparatively  easy  for 
either  to  yield  to  the  wishes  or  convictions  of 
the  other.  Innumerable  points  of  mutual  agree- 
ment, attachment,  and  sympathy,  will  thus  natu- 
ally  be  formed,  of  great  value  to  them  in  all 
their  subsequent  intercourse. 

We  read  that  our  Lord  was  present  at  a  mar- 
riage once  in  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  there  turned 
water  into  wine.  So  He  is  always  present,  both 
by  His  Spirit  and  His  Providence,  at  every  mar- 
riage which  is  sought  and  contracted  in  an  obe- 
dient regard  for  His  truth  ;  turning  every  thing 
connected  with  it  into  something  better  than 
it  would  be  without  His  presence,  inspiring  the 
love  which  draws  the  partners  together,  impart- 
ing  the  mutual  good-will  by  which  its  duties  are 
performed,  and  communicating  the  delights  by 
which  all  its  pleasures  are  enjoyed. 


CHAPTER  FOURTH. 


"  Bride  and  bridegroom,  pilgrims  of  life, 
Henceforward  to  travel  together 
In  this  the  beginning  of  your  journey, 
Neglect  not  the  favor  of  Heaven; 
And  at  eventide  kneel  ye  together, 
That  your  joy  be  not  unhallowed: 
Angels  that  are  round  you  shall  be  glad, 
Those  loving  ministers  of  mercy; 
And  the  richest  blessings  of  God 
Shall  be  poured  on  His  favored  children." 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE   USES    OF   MARRIAGE.  , 
"  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother, 

AND  CLEAVE  UNTO  HIS  WIFE."  —  Mark  X.  7. 

\VTHO  shall  adequately  describe  the  social 
~  "  uses  of  marriage  ?  They  are  numerous 
and  twofold,  —  natural  and  spiritual;  or  those 
which  relate  to  the  body  and  the  world,  and 
those  which  relate  to  the  soul  and  to  heaven. 
All  these  conspire  and  flow  together,  coalescing 
in  one  most  beautiful,  perfect,  and  harmonious 
system.  The  natural  functions,  with  the  adapted 
affections  which  grow  out  of  them,  are  the  bases 
or  receptacles  of  the  spiritual  uses,  with  the 
loves  and  affections  which  are  proper  to  them. 
Therefore  the  connection  between  these  two 
classes  of  use  is  far  more  intimate  and  vital 
than  is  commonly  supposed. 

1.  This  relation  is  the  means  of  populating 
the  globe.    This  may,  indeed,  be  considered  its 


66 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


most  conspicuous  natural  use  ;  but  is  also  the 
means  by  which  are  produced  future  inhabitants 
for  the  spiritual  world :  and  so,  by  the  same  in- 
stitution, is  the  perpetual  increase  of  heaven 
provided  for ;  and  population,  added  there,  re- 
mains for  ever.  Thus  we  see  that  its  greatest 
spiritual  use  springs  forth  from  and  grows  im- 
mediately of  its  principal  natural  function.  It 
is  so  of  the  others. 

2.  This  institution  is  the  parent  of  all  family 
relationships ;  and  hence,  too,  of  all  those  de- 
lightful social  affections  that  form  the  endearing 
ties  of  the  different  degrees  of  consanguinity. 
It  is  highly  important  that  these  various  natural 
affections  should  be  brought  forth  in  the  human 
mind,  and  rendered  active  from  the  earliest 
stages  of  our  growth.  In  our  tender  years,  we 
are  the  most  easily  formed  by  the  outward  in- 
fluences that  surround  us ;  and  were  it  not  for 
the  emotions  that  are  awakened  in  us  by  the 
endearments  of  home,  and  the  tender  ties  that 
are  formed  by  the  relations  of  parents  and  chil- 
dren, brothers  and  sisters,  with  the  other  affini- 
ties which  are  less  near  and  dear,  the  heart 
would  remain  lone  and  unapproachable.  Cold- 
ness and  selfishness  would  be  almost  sure  to 
settle  around  it.    Intercourse  with  the  world 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE.  G7 

would  be  far  more  likely  to  harden  than  to 
soften  it.  The  spiritual  affections  would  find 
it  difficult  to  form  in  such  a  mind.  Mutual 
love,  or  love  to  the  neighbor,  could  not  be  so 
readily  felt  by  one  who  had  never  exercised 
a  similar  love  in  the  family.  The  heavenly 
Father  cannot  be  so  easily  or  willingly  loved, 
obeyed,  and  worshipped,  by  one  who  has  never 
first  learned  to  love,  respect,  and  obey  an  earth- 
ly parent.  Proper  affection,  and  an  unselfish 
regard  for  fellow-members  of  the  Church,  cannot 
be  so  readily  called  into  exercise  by  one  who 
has  not  from  youth  had  the  love  of  kindred 
drawn  forth  in  him  in  a  circle  of  relatives  and 
friends. 

All  the  spiritual  affections  of  heavenly  love 
need  the  corresponding  affections  of  good  natu- 
ral love  to  afford  them  shells,  or  coverings,  in 
which  they  may  grow,  and  from  which  they  may 
derive  a  species  of  nourishment,  or  support, 
while  in  their  infantile  or  formative  state.  They 
are  what  first  open  the  mind  and  expand  it,  and 
so  impart  to  it  a  greater  capacity  of  reception 
for  other  and  higher  thinga,  which  enlarge  the 
character  and  build  up  the  man. 

From  this  point,  therefore,  it  will  be  instruc- 
tive to  take  a  view  of  the  superior  dignity  and 


68 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


excellency  of  the  uses  connected  with  marriage. 
They  cluster  about  it,  and  ray  out  from  it  on 
every  side :  at  the  same  time,  they  all  regard 
and  look  to  it  as  their  focal  point,  or  centre. 
In  it  God  associates  man  with  Himself  in  the 
great  work  of  creating  human  beings.  He  ad- 
mits him  to  be  a  helper,  and  consents  to  carry 
on,  through  his  subsidiary  instrumentality,  that 
most  sublime  of  all  natural  works  in  which  He 
is  engaged.  He  wills  to  give  ultimate  effect  to 
His  own  divine  creative  acts  through  the  con- 
sent and  co-operation  of  man.  It  is  a  perpetual 
operation,  which  He  has  much  at  heart,  and 
which  He  takes  ineffable  delight  in  perfecting 
and  fulfilling.  "What  wonder,  then,  that  the 
married  state  is  the  most  receptive  of  happi- 
ness ;  that  into  it  are  collected  the  highest  joys 
and  purest  satisfactions  that  the  human  mind 
can  experience :  and  those  joys  and  satisfactions 
go  on  increasing,  not  only  while  we  remain  in 
this  world,  but  unfold  into  indefinitely  superior 
delights  in  the  heavenly  world. 

Thus  we  see  that  all  things  centre  in  marri- 
age, —  the  production  of  human  beings,  the  po- 
pulation of  the  globe,  and  the  increase  of  heaven. 
It  is  the  centre  also  of  all  affections,  happiness, 
and  delight;  and  the  spiritual  life  of  man  has 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


60 


its  origin  and  first  principles  in  the  same  semi- 
nary. 

The  spiritual  uses  derived  from  it  to  the  in- 
dividuals who  enter  into  it  begin  from  the  first 
moment  of  their  exterior  union.  It  is  the  state 
the  best  fitted,  in  all  respects,  to  form  the  cha- 
racter ;  the  one  most  favorable  to  the  growth  of 
all  the  social  and  moral  virtues ;  and  that  most 
promotive  of  the  graces  of  Christian  acquire- 
ment, the  affections  and  traits  of  truly  heavenly 
life. 

"When  its  offices  are  performed  from  religious 
principle  and  a  sense  of  duty,  it  tends  to  spirit- 
ualize and  purify  the  mind  more  than  any  other 
relation  in  which  we  can  be  placed.  It  draws 
out  our  love,  and  places  it  on  other  objects  than 
self,  and,  by  determining  the  flow  of  the  affec- 
tions very  strongly  to  those  objects,  makes  it 
easier  to  forget  self ;  affording  a  kind  of  mental 
lever,  by  which  we  are  lifted  out  of  a  state,  from 
which,  without  some  extraneous  aid,  we  should 
find  it  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
extricate  ourselves. 

This  is  effected  by  all  the  circumstances  that 
surround  married  partners  in  a  family.  The 
children  form  a  common  bond  between  them, 
and  attract  the  desires  and  intentions  of  pa- 


70 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


rents  to  an  activity  with  reference  to  their  good, 
instead  of  a  concentration  of  that  activity  on 
themselves.  Many,  no  doubt,  regard  the  love  of 
offspring  as  the  primary  love  ;  the  one,  perhaps, 
of  superior  interest,  excellency,  and  obligation. 
And  many  parents  love  their  children  better 
than  they  do  their  married  partners  ;  while  it  is 
believed  that  not  a  few  love  their  partners 
principally  on  account  of  or  for  the  sake  of 
the  offspring.  Without  genuine  doctrine  on  the 
subject,  it  could  never  be  known  that  this  is 
not  true  order.  Commendable  and  proper  and 
necessary  and  obligatory  as  the  love  of  offspring 
is,  and  as  useful,  pure,  and  elevated  as  it  is 
capable  of  becoming,  it  is  yet  not  to  be  placed 
on  the  same  level  with  love  to  the  married 
partner.  It  belongs  to  a  different  plane :  it  is 
neither  so  lasting  in  its  nature,  nor  so  profound 
in  its  quality.  The  relation  of  parents  to  chil- 
dren, and  of  children  to  parents,  is  one  which 
belongs  to  the  present  world.  When  the  natu- 
ral body  is  laid  aside,  and  the  other  world  is 
entered,  this  peculiar  relation  no  longer  exists. 
When  children  enter  there,  or  when  those  who 
have  entered  as  infants  come  to  be  instructed 
there,  they  are  no  longer  taught  to  regard 
earthly  parents  in  the  same  light  in  which  it  was 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


71 


their  duty  to  regard  them  while  they  remained 
in  the  natural  world.  They  are  then  taught  to 
look  up  to  and  acknowledge  the  Lord  Himself  as 
the  only  Father,  and  to  regard  all  in  heaven 
as  brethren  and  sisters ;  and  as  soon  as  they  ar- 
rive at  years  of  maturity  or  rationality,  so  as  no 
longer  to  require  the  care  and  attention  of  their 
angelic  matrons  or  nurses,  they  are  instructed 
that  the  Bride  —  the  Lamb's  wife,  the  Church 
as  it  exists  in  heaven  —  is  what  is  there  under- 
stood by  "  mother." 

From  this  we  can  perceive,  that  the  love 
which  binds  parents  to  children,  and  children  to 
parents,  is  comparatively  ephemeral  in  its  na- 
ture ;  that  its  principal  sphere  of  operation  is 
the  present  life ;  and  that  it  does  not  endure  to 
eternity. 

Not  that  the  love  for  children  or  the  young 
ever  decays  in  the  human  breast.  Far  from  it. 
That  love  is  stronger  in  the  minds  of  angels 
than  it  ever  is  in  the  minds  of  men ;  but  their 
love  gives  birth  to  spiritual  affections.  They 
love  all  children  better  than  their  parents  do. 
They  do  not  love  their  own  any  more  or  any 
differently  from  what  they  love  those  of  others. 
They  do  not  claim  as  their  own  those  that  were 
born  to  them  on  earth  ;  but  acknowledge  those, 


72 


THE  USES  OP  MARRIAGE. 


equally  with  others,  to  belong  only  to  the  Lord 
and  to  heaven. 

Thus  that  specific  love  by  which  parents  re- 
gard their  natural  offspring  as  being  peculiarly 
their  own  children  ceases  when  we  enter  the 
heavenly  world,  and  is  replaced  by  the  angelic 
love  of  children;  and  that  specific  love  with 
which  children  regard  their  natural  parents  is 
replaced  by  a  spiritual  love  for  the  Lord  and  His 
Church. 

Not  so  with  the  love  between  conjugial  part- 
ners. This  comes  from  a  deeper  ground  in  our 
V  nature.  It  has  its  birth  on  a  more  interior  plane 
in  the  soul,  and  stirs  a  more  interior  class  of 
emotions.  The  principles  it  affects,  and  the 
sympathies  it  gives  rise  to,  flow  from  and  enter 
into  the  permanent  constituents  of  our  being. 
It  does  not  cease  when  we  have  finished  our 
journey  in  the  present  world ;  it  continues :  it 
is  endowed  with  attributes  which  are  everlast- 
ing. When  the  things  of  time  and  natural 
sense  are  dismissed,  it  does  not  close  like  states 
connected  only  with  the  body,  but  continues  to 
open  perpetually  more  and  more  inwardly.  On 
ascending  into  the  heavenly  world,  it  does  not, 
like  the  love  of  children,  grow  more  general  or 
wide-spread  in  the  objects  of  its  affection:  on 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


73 


the  contrary,  it  becomes  for  ever  more  and  more 
specific.  It  is  more  and  more  intently  deter- 
mined to  one,  and  more  and  more  strictly  con- 
fined to  that  one. 

Such  is  the  state  into  which  all  ought  to  come  ; 
for  it  is  the  state  in  which  all  must  be,  and  for 
ever  remain,  if  they  dwell  in  the  heavens. 

Being  so  deeply  rooted,  therefore,  in  the  in- 
most parts  of  our  constitution,  the  sympathies 
and  duties  which  grow  out  of  this  relation  in 
the  world  are  calculated  to  stir  the  heart,  and 
affect  us  more  deeply  than  those  which  spring 
from  any  other.  Its  varied  trials  and  encou- 
ragements, its  joys  and  sorrows,  its  hopes  and 
fears,  its  pains  and  pleasures,  move  the  profound- 
est  principles  of  our  nature ;  and,  while  they 
thus  operate  upon  the  character  most  powerful- 
ly, may  at  the  same  time  be  made  to  do  so  most 
beneficially. 

While,  as  we  have  seen,  marriage  affords  some 
of  the  best  opportunities  for  calling  forth  and 
putting  into  exercise  the  good  affections  belong- 
ing to  our  nature,  it  also  furnishes  the  very  best 
external  means  of  getting  rid  of  our  evil  pro- 
pensities. 

In  the  first  place,  it  enables  us  to  see  them. 


74 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


It  brings  us  into  frequent  and  most  intimate 
contact  with  the  wills  of  others ;  and,  in  this 
way,  innumerable  discrepancies  between  our 
desires  and  the  desires  of  those  most  dear  to  us 
are  brought  to  light.  The  disagreements  that 
take  place  necessarily  lead  to  comparison  of 
views,  and  it  is  seen  that  those  things  which 
cause  jarring  and  disharmony  are  evils ;  that 
they  stand  in  the  way  of  union  and  happiness ; 
and  that  they  are  alike  contrary  to  conjugial  love 
and  the  divine  precepts.  In  this  way,  count- 
less faults  of  disposition  and  character  in  our- 
selves are  manifested  to  us,  which  otherwise 
would  have  remained  unseen  by  us,  and  we 
should  have  continued  to  retain  them. 

In  the  second  place,  it  furnishes  us  with  a 
superior  set  of  motives  for  putting  them  away. 
To  deny  ourselves  on  account  of  others  is  a 
better  work  than  to  do  so  merely  for  the  sake  of 
our  own  improvement.  To  deny  a  selfish  grati- 
fication, in  order  to  promote  the  happiness  of 
another,  is  highly  beneficial  to  our  own  states. 
To  avoid  a  bad  habit,  or  reform  a  disagreeable 
trait  of  character,  because  it  annoys  the  feelings 
or  disturbs  the  peace  of  a  beloved  partner, 
will  add  new  stamina  to  our  moral  forces,  and 
strengthen  our  power  of  goodness.    To  curb 


THE  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 


75 


and  restrain  an  unruly  temper  or  morbid  pro- 
pensity because  it  is  not  only  contrary  to  the 
divine  law,  but  also  injurious  to  one  who  is 
bound  to  us  by  the  closest  of  ties,  will  have  a 
tendency  to  lift  us  higher  above  it,  and  separate 
it  farther  from  us,  than  it  would  to  do  so  simply 
as  a  work  of  single,  isolated  regeneration. 


CHAPTER  FIFTH. 


Let  no  one  have  thy  confidence, 

O  wife!  saving  thy  husband: 

Have  not  a  friend  more  intimate, 

0  husband !  than  thy  wife. 

In  the  joy  of  a  well-ordered  home, 

Be  warned  that  this  is  not  your  rest; 

For  the  substance  to  come  may  be  forgotten 

In  the  present  beauty  of  the  shadow." 

M.  F.  T. 


CHAPTER  V. 


MEANS    OP  UNION. 


"And  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh:  so,  then,  they  ake 
no  moke  twain,  but  one  flesh."  —  Mark  x.  8. 


'E  are  taught  in  the  Writings  of  the  New 


*  T  Church,  that  there  is  continually  proceed- 
ing directly  from  the  Lord  Himself  a  universal 
conjugial  sphere.  This  sphere  is  an  emana- 
tion of  life ;  and  it  flows  out,  therefore,  with 
a  perpetual  tendency,  conatus,  and  endeavor, 
towards  the  production  of  results,  —  towards 
the  production  of  effects  which  are  peculiar  to 
itself.  These  effects  are  conjunctions  between 
pairs  of  opposite  polarity,  and  the  propagation 
of  offspring  therefrom.  This  is  the  medium 
through  which  the  renewal  of  creation  is  car- 
ried on,  and  its  perpetuity  maintained.  In  the 
animal  world,  it  is  prolification  :  in  the  vegeta- 
ble world,  it  is  fructification. 


so 


MEANS  OF  UNION. 


This  sphere  and  conatus  pervade  the  entire 
universe.  It  is  that  divine  spiritual  energy 
which  imparts  to  universal  nature  animation 
and  activity.  It  encompasses  every  object  in 
the  creation  like  an  atmosphere,  —  from  first 
principles  to  last,  from  highest  to  lowest.  All 
are  recipient  subjects  of  its  influence,  —  from 
the  most  elevated  angel  in  the  highest  heaven 
to  the  meanest  worm  that  creeps  upon  the 
earth's  surface. 

Into  each  subject  it  is  received  and  manifest- 
ed according  to  the  form  of  that  subject.  In 
men,  it  gives  rise  to  love  ;  in  animals,  to  in- 
stinct ;  in  vegetables,  to  organific  force ;  in 
minerals,  to  motion  and  affinity. 

In  the  superior  heavens,  it  is  received  as 
the  unity  of  two  minds,  effected  through  the 
conjunction  in  them  of  heavenly  love  with 
heavenly  wisdom.  In  the  inferior  heavens,  it 
is  received  as  a  similar  conjunction,  effected 
to  a  less  perfect  degree.  With  men,  it  may 
be  received  in  a  natural  manner  or  in  a  spiritual 
manner ;  in  a  disorderly  and  inverted  way,  or 
in  an  orderly  and  right  way;  either  as  the 
promptings  of  blind  desire,  of  carnal  lust,  or 
as  the  impulses  of  rational  love  and  hallowed 
affection. 


MEANS  OF  UNION. 


81 


The  divine  precept  to  married  partners  is, 
that  they  shall  become  one ;  and  the  unity 
thus  meant  is  a  unity  of  mind,  —  a  consenting 
agreement  of  understanding  and  will,  of  affec- 
tion and  thought.  And,  when  such  a  union 
of  soul  —  of  heart  and  mind  —  has  been  effect- 
ed between  two,  they  can  no  more  be  put 
asunder,  neither  in  this  world  nor  in  the  world 
to  come.  They  have  then  been  joined  by  the 
Lord  through  the  medium  of  His  divine  truth, 
and  His  work  endures  to  eternity. 

From  the  account  we  have  already  given  of 
the  constitution  of  the  male  and  female  minds, 
we  see  that  they  are  mutually  adapted  to  each 
other,  and  fitted  in  their  very  natures  to  act 
together  and  to  become  one.  Each  supplies,  to 
the  other,  elements  of  affection  and  thought, 
which  it  requires  to  render  its  own  being  full 
and  complete.  The  female  is  gifted  with  love, 
and  needs  the  male  mind  to  give  it  form,  to  sur- 
round it  with  intellectual  hardness,  affording  it 
outward  protection  and  defence.  The  male  is 
gifted  with  understanding,  which  needs  the 
female  mind  to  afford  it  a  place  of  rest ;  where 
also  warmth  and  impulse  may  be  imparted  to  it. 

The  innate  tendency  of  the  two  minds,  after 
marriage,  is  to  become  one  ;  and  they  will 
6 


82 


MEANS  OF  UNION. 


continue  to  do  so  more  and  more,  of  their 
own  accord,  if  the  partners  only  remove  pre- 
ventives out  of  the  way.  This  is  a  most  mer- 
ciful provision  of  our  Father  in  the  heavens. 
"We  have  not  to  effect  this  union  of  ourselves. 
If  it  were  left  to  our  powers  to  perform,  it 
would  never  be  accomplished.  We  could  never 
work  out  such  a  change  in  our  own  minds  ;  but 
the  Lord  makes  constant  provision  for  its  being 
done  for  us.  All  that  two  partners  have  to  do 
to  bring  it  about  is  simply  to  remove  obstruc- 
tions out  of  the  way  ;  to  quiet  discords,  and  can- 
cel defects;  to  desist  from  those  things  which 
separate  them ;  to  give  up,  successively,  those 
particulars  of  self-will,  and  those  gratifications 
of  selfish  desire,  in  which  each  crosses  the  will 
of  the  other.  The  progressive  conjunction  will 
then  go  on.  The  Lord,  by  the  outflowings  of 
His  Spirit,  will  effect  it.  The  universal  conju- 
gial  sphere  proceeding  from  Him  will  continually 
flow  in,  and  exert  its  formative  influence  on  the 
two  minds.  It  will  perpetually  draw  them  to 
each  other,  and  it  will  continually  inspire  into 
them  the  various  affections  and  thoughts  neces- 
sary to  bind  them  more  and  more  closely  into 
one. 

It  is  the  self-wiil  of  each  that  is  to  be  given 


5IEANS  OF  UNION. 


S3 


up,  and  not  merely  the  will  of  one  to  the  will 
of  the  other.  A  species  of  conjunction  may 
take  place  from  the  habitual  submission  of  one 
to  the  will  of  the  other,  or  of  each,  in  certain 
cases,  to  the  will  of  the  other  ;  and  thus  by 
the  balancing  of  dispositions,  and  the  offset  of 
one  natural  desire  against  another,  an  equili- 
brium may  be  produced  which  will  effect  a 
practical  concord. 

But  such  an  agreement  does  not  constitute 
true  union :  it  is  nothing  more  than  the  nega- 
tive consent  of  the  unregenerated  will.  The 
harmony  produced  by  it  is  only  apparent,  and 
not  real ;  resting  on  the  surface  of  the  mind, 
and  not  reaching  to  the  interiors. 

The  work  to  be  done  is  the  giving-up  the 
natural  and  selfish  wills  of  both  to  the  will  of 
the  Lord.  The  moment  we  are  no  longer  deter- 
mined or  anxious  to  carry  out  selfish  desires, 
conformity  to  the  will  of  another  becomes  com- 
paratively easy ;  and,  where  both  are  willing  to 
enter  into  the  same  state  of  effort  towards  con- 
junction, difficulties  rapidly  disappear.  The 
precepts  of  divine  truth  offer  a  standard  of 
light,  and  afford  a  common  ground  of  union. 
The  new  or  regenerated  wills  of  the  two,  being 
formed  from  similar  views  of  the  truth  and  by 


84 


MEANS  OF  UNION. 


a  similar  affection  of  the  truth,  will  be  in  com- 
plete unison.  The  old  wills  of  the  two  are 
what  are  not  united,  and  those  old  wills  never 
can  be  truly  united,  to  each  other.  It  is  not  in 
their  nature  to  become  so :  for,  in  their  nature, 
they  are  essentially  selfish ;  and  selfishness  al- 
ways tends  to  division  and  separation.  As  the 
old  wills  of  the  parties  are  lost,  a  new,  united,  or 
conjoined  will  is  formed  through  the  insemina- 
tion and  growth  of  holy  truth,  —  a  common  will 
of  good,  of  right,  of  heavenly  love,  of  obedience 
to  the  divine  commands.  This  is  what  is  meant 
by  becoming  one  flesh.  It  is  also  provided  by 
the  Lord,  that  the  several  duties  which  pertain 
to  each  shall  have  a  tendency  to  conjoin  mar- 
ried partners  more  and  more  into  one ;  for  all 
the  offices  and  employments  of  the  wife  connect 
themselves  with  those  of  the  husband,  and,  as  it 
were,  make  one  with  them.  The  happiness  of 
the  husband  requires  that  he  should  have  per- 
formed for  him  those  offices  which  belong  to  the 
wife,  and  the  happiness  of  the  wife  requires 
that  she  should  have  performed  for  her  those 
which  belong  especially  to  the  husband.  The 
two  spheres  of  employment,  or  duty,  afford  mu- 
tual aid  to  each  other  at  every  point  of  contact; 
and  they  have  points  of  contact  throughout  the 


MEANS  OF  UNION. 


85 


entire  circle  of  each :  so  that  they  flow  mutu- 
ally together  to  form  one  united  and  complete 
house. 

The  conjunction  is  more  rapidly  promoted  by 
both  partners  giving  their  specific  attention 
to  their  own  peculiar  sphere  of  use  and  duty. 
The  whole  round  of  duties  proper  to  the  man 
cannot  be  so  well  performed  by  the  woman 
as  by  him  ;  and  the  more  she  retires  from  them, 
giving  them  up  to  him  to  perform,  the  better 
opportunity  will  she  give  the  husband  of  con- 
joining himself  to  her :  and  the  more  the  hus- 
band, on  his  part,  looks  to  the  happiness  of  the 
wife  in  the  performance  of  his  own  duties,  the 
more  will  that  conjunction  be  effected.  So,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  circle  of  employments  suita- 
ble to  the  female  cannot  be  so  well  executed  by 
the  man  as  by  her ;  and,  the  more  he  withdraws 
from  meddling  or  interference  in  that  depart- 
ment, the  better  opportunity  will  he  afford  the 
wife  for  conjoining  herself  to  him :  while  the 
more  the  wife,  on  her  part,  regards  the  happi- 
ness of  her  husband  in  all  the  works  of  her 
department,  the  more  will  that  conjunction  be 
effected. 

"  In  the  duties  proper  to  the  men,  the  pri- 
mary agent  is  understanding,  thought,  and  wis- 


£6 


MEANS  OF  UNION. 


dom;  whereas,  in  the  duties  proper  to  wives, 
the  primary  agent  is  will,  affection,  and  love; 
and  the  wife,  from  the  latter  principles,  performs 
her  duties,  and  the  man,  from  the  former,  per- 
forms his :  wherefore  their  duties,  from  the 
nature  of  them,  are  diverse,  but  still  conjunc- 
tive, in  a  successive  series."  * 

To  those  who  are  gifted,  or  who  are  begin- 
ning to  be  gifted,  with  true  conjugial  love, 
there  is  a  perception  given  that  they  may  be- 
come, and  that  they  are  becoming,  more  and 
more  united  both  as  to  understanding  and  will ; 
and  this  perception  is  a  source  of  inmost  de- 
light. By  means  of  it,  there  are  at  times 
inspired,  into  the  hearts  of  partners,  feelings  of 
love  which  are  full  of  innocence,  peace,  tran- 
quillity, and  inmost  friendship.  These  give  rise 
to  full  and  entire  confidence  in  each  other,  and 
to  a  mutual  desire  of  mind  and  heart  to  do  each 
other  every  good  in  their  power,  and  to  be  in 
an  effort  each  to  promote  the  happiness  of  the 
other. 

From  this  conjunction,  or  marriage,  of  the  two 
minds,  a  progeny  is  produced ;  a  progeny  of  the 
spirit;  an  offspring  of  minds  and  hearts;  an 


*  Conjugial  Love,"  No.  175. 


MEAN'S  OF  UNION. 


issue,  or  seed,  of  affections  and  thoughts.  States 
of  mind  are  produced  from  it,  of  the  greatest 
satisfaction,  delight,  and  pleasure,  —  emanations 
which  are  ever  becoming  more  and  more  full 
and  delightful  as  the  union  of  soul  progresses, 
satisfactions  which  are  only  the  earnest  and 
foretaste  of  those  heavenly  enjoyments  that  are 
to  constitute  the  blessedness  of  eternal  felicity. 
This  marriage  of  the  mind  successively  opens 
the  souls  of  the  two  partners  to  the  reception 
of  a  higher  love  and  a  better  wisdom.  The 
man  is  all  the  while  being  gifted  with  a  clearer 
intelligence,  and  the  wife  is  all  the  while  being 
gifted  with  a  purer  affection  for  that  intelli- 
gence. Thus  the  husband  becomes  constantly 
more  truly  wise,  while  the  wife  becomes  con- 
stantly more  truly  lovely.  This  is  the  progres- 
sion of  the  pair  to  eternity. 

Thus  may  two  minds,  like  two  branches  of  a 
living  vine,  by  careful  pruning  and  bending,  be 
trained,  not  merely  to  grow  together  in  the  same 
general  direction,  but  likewise  to  intertwine, 
lacing  their  twigs  together,  and  mingling  in  a 
common  mass  their  fragrant  leaves,  their  blos- 
soms, and  their  fruit ;  and  this  by  a  mutual 
attention  to  the  labor  of  cultivation,  which  shall 
yield  its  varied  satisfactions  at  every  step. 


CHAPTER  SIXTH. 


"  If  thou  wilt  be  loved, 
Render  implicit  confidence; 
If  thou  wouldst  not  suspect, 
Receive  full  confidence  in  turn: 
For,  where  trust  is  not  reciprocal, 
The  love  that  trusted  withereth." 

M.  F.  T. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


"What,  therefore,  god  hath  joined  together,  let  not 


'ROM  what  has  been  thus  far  said,  it  will  have 


-*~  been  perceived,  that  conjugial  love,  viewed 
in  its  inmost,  true,  and  essential  nature,  is  a 
spiritual  and  heavenly  love  ;  and  it  will  also  have 
been  seen,  that  it  is  a  different  love  from  spirit- 
ual love  to  the  neighbor.  The  difference  consists 
in  this :  In  conjugial  love,  each  partner  desires 
to  belong  to  and  become  more  and  more  the 
other's,  to  see  themselves  in  each  other,  and  to 
give  themselves  to  each  other.  In  neighborly 
love,  there  is  no  such  desire  of  conjunction ;  but 
a  desire  to  do  heavenly  justice  to  the  neighbor, 
and  to  see  him  exalted  in  blessedness,  and  eter- 
nally happy. 

In  addition  to  that  exclusive  love  for  each 
other  which  it  is  both  the  duty  and  the  privilege 


MAN  PUT  ASUNDER."  —  JIark  X. 


92  MUTUAL  DUTIES. 

of  married  partners  to  cultivate,  there  should  be 
between  them  a  constant  effort  to  act  in  all  things 
in  unity  from  love.  Upon  this  the  progress  of 
their  union  and  their  happiness  greatly  depend. 
We  have  said  that  their  unity  of  action  ought 
to  proceed  from  the  united  love  of  each  ;  for 
only  in  such  union  is  there  true  freedom.  It  is 
important  that  the  perfect  freedom  of  each  mind 
be  carefully  preserved ;  "  since  it  is  impossible 
for  any  mutual  love  or  happiness  to  exist  where 
one  party  assumes  dominion,  and  reduces  the 
other  to  a  state  of  servitude." 

"  The  absence  of  all  inclination  to  govern  by 
mere  authority  is  essential  to  the  very  existence 
of  conjugial  love."  —  "This  liberty,"  in  which 
each  should  study  to  leave  the  other,  "  does  not 
imply  a  license  for  either  party  to  follow  freely 
any  vicious  inclination,  or  any  course  inimical  to 
the  conjugial  state  or  to  their  domestic  happi- 
ness. It  implies  liberty  in  all  things  that  are 
orderly ;  the  free  enjoyment  of  the  rights  which 
belong  to  the  husband  and  wife  as  parties  in  a 
covenant,  the  benefits  of  which  can  only  be  truly 
realized  by  the  freest  affection ;  by  mutual  ser- 
vice yielded  by  love,  not  extorted  by  fear.  True 
love  ever  desires  reciprocation,  and  love  can 
only  be  reciprocated  by  love ;  but  there  can  be 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


93 


neither  love  nor  reciprocation,  except  where 
there  is  liberty."  The  attempt  of  either  party 
to  rule,  in  the  marriage  relation,  has  almost  an 
inevitable  tendency  to  set  the  minds  of  the  par- 
ties more  or  less  at  variance.  If  it  sometimes 
be  so  slight  as  hardly  to  cause  itself  to  be  out- 
wardly observed,  yet  it  can  scarcely  fail  to  work 
towards  a  species  of  inward  alienation,  far  more 
to  be  dreaded  and  to  be  more  studiously  guard- 
ed against.  If  not  removed,  it  will  ever  prove 
a  fruitful  source  of  disagreements  and  misunder- 
standings. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  genuine  fear  connected 
with  conjugial  love ;  but  it  is  not  the  kind  spo- 
ken of  above.  It  is  a  fear  lest  that  love  should 
suffer  hurt  or  injury,  and  lest  any  thing  be  done 
to  disturb  the  affection  or  alienate  the  mind  of 
the  partner.  It  is  analogous  to  that  fear  which 
a  dutiful  child  feels  of  disobeying  a  kind  and 
judicious  parent;  or  which  an  humble  and  de- 
vout follower  of  the  Lord  feels  of  proving  recre- 
ant to  duty,  or  transgressing  the  will  of  the 
heavenly  Father. 

Hence,  too,  it  is  a  truth,  in  connection  with 
this  subject,  which  ought  to  be  known,  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  genuine  and  proper 
jealousy.    This  truth  ought  likewise  to  bo  ac- 


04 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


knowledged  in  practice.  Of  the  natural  or  self- 
ish or  disorderly  or  improper  kinds  of  jealousy 
it  is  not  our  design  to  speak  :  they  are,  of 
course,  to  be  avoided,  and  put  away  from  the 
mind.  But  true  jealousy  is  a  different  emotion. 
It  is  a  spiritual  affection,  having  its  seat  in  a 
more  interior  region  of  the  mind.  It  originates 
in  a  fear  lest  conjugial  love  should  be  in  any  way 
divided,  and  should  thereby  perish,  wholly  or  in 
part.  Thus  it  is  set  as  a  guard  in  the  mind  to 
protect  this  most  valuable  jewel  of  the  human 
soul.  In  the  figurative  language  of  Scripture, 
the  Lord  himself  is  not  unfrequently  represented 
as  being  jealous,  lest  his  Church,  which  is  be- 
trothed or  united  to  him  in  spiritual  marriage, 
should  in  some  way  prove  unfaithful  in  her  high 
duties. 

The  more  any  two  partners  are  really  united 
to  each  other  internally,  the  more  sensitive  will 
each  be  in  this  respect,  and  the  more  intensely 
will  their  jealousy  burn  against  those  who  infest, 
or  who  in  any  way  seek  to  disturb,  the  simple 
and  sacred  unity  of  married  love.  Those  who 
are  spiritually  united  to  each  other  regard  their 
mutual  and  reciprocal  union  into  one  as  the  pri- 
mary end  of  life.  In  that  union  they  find  their 
spiritual  rest,  their  satisfaction  of  mind,  their 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


95 


solace  or  gladness  of  heart.  Having,  therefore, 
put  disunion  away  from  their  thoughts  and  affec- 
tions, they  are  greatly  disturbed  by  any  thing 
which  threatens  it,  and  that  threatens  it  even  in 
the  remotest  manner.  When,  therefore,  even  a 
chance  exists  that  injury  will  be  offered  to  it,  or 
an  appearance  of  separation  happens,  through 
the  outward  attentions  of  love  being  diverted 
to  another  party,  this  sentiment  is  aroused,  and 
its  fire  possibly  may  sometimes  appear  even  as  a 
burning  zeal  directed  against  the  intruder  or 
offender. 

All  affection  of  genuine  love  is  attended  with 
fear  and  grief,  —  fear  lest  it  should  perish  or  be 
injured,  and  grief  in  case  it  does  perish  or  is  in- 
jured. It  is  the  innate  sentiment  of  self-preser- 
vation, possessed  by  every  principle  of  life  there 
is  in  the  universe.  Hence  we  may  see  that  the 
jealousy  which  has  place  with  those  married 
partners  who  tenderly  love  each  other,  and  who 
are  in  a  right  effort  to  be  truly  united,  is  a  just 
fear  or  grief,  grounded  in  sound  reason,  lest  their 
conjugial  love  should  be  divided,  and  should 
thereby  perish,  or  suffer  hurt,  or  come  into  jeo- 
pardy. 

As  reason  and  sound  judgment  and  intelligence 
and  wisdom  are  faculties  most  peculiar  to  the 


9G 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


male,  and  the  wife  is  affected  by  them  princi- 
pally by  reception  through  the  husband,  so  con- 
jugial  love,  with  its  affections  and  perceptions, 
resides  pre-eminently  with  the  female :  and  the 
husband  is  inspired  with  and  feels  it  principally 
by  reception  through  the  wife.  Wives  are  its 
peculiar  recipients.  With  them  it  is  stored,  and 
through  them  it  is  dispensed.  They  are  by  na- 
ture its  constituted  warders,  or  keepers  ;  and,  in 
a  profound  sense,  they  are  the  watchmen  and 
overseers  of  what  properly  belongs  to  it.  For 
this  purpose,  they  are  gifted  with  peculiar  per- 
ception. They  have  a  nicer  appreciation  than 
the  men  of  all  its  contingent  proprieties,  and 
a  quicker  sense  of  the  approach  of  any  thing 
tending  to  molest  or  impair  it.  Hence  their  bo- 
soms are  oftenest  the  seat  of  that  peculiar  but 
true  jealousy  we  have  just  endeavored  to  de- 
scribe ;  and  its  ends  and  monitions  should  be 
carefully  and  generously  allowed,  appreciated, 
honored,  and  defended  by  the  husband. 

From  the  same  cause,  the  love  of  women  is 
more  constant  than  that  of  men.  Their  affec- 
tions, once  determined  in  a  given  direction,  are 
not  so  liable  to  change.  The  conjugial  principle 
is  innate  with  them  ;  and  where,  from  a  sense  of 
religious  duty,  they  give  it  a  right  cultivation,  it 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


97 


is  easier  for  them  to  conform  to  its  just  require- 
ments :  but  their  determination,  in  great  measure, 
depends  upon  the  husband. 

The  Aryan  people,  who  settled  anciently  in 
the  valley  of  the  Ganges,  and  from  whose  records 
and  institutions  sprang  the  religions  of  Brahmin- 
ism  and  Buddhism,  had  a  beautiful  symbolical 
rite  connected  with  this  subject.  When  a  youth- 
ful pair,  just  united* in  wedlock,  betook  them- 
selves to  their  new  home,  they  were  required  to 
light  a  lamp  of  a  peculiar  kind,  and  one  which, 
according  to  their  customs,  was  allowed  on  no 
other  occasion,  nor  devoted  to  any  other  purpose. 
It  was  reserved  for  this  single  use.  The  flame 
of  that  lamp,  once  lighted,  was  to  be  kept  con- 
stantly burning  night  and  day.  Never  was  it 
allowed  to  be  extinguished  ;  but  at  all  hours,  in 
every  season,  year  after  year,  through  all  the 
changes  of  life,  that  lamp  burned  on,  until  the 
death  or  separation  of  the  parties. 

This  was  the  remaining  tradition  of  a  spirit- 
ual correspondence  derived  from  the  Ancient 
Church.  Who  does  not  see  in  that  nuptial  lamp  a 
striking  emblem  of  that  flame  of  conjugial  love, 
pure  and  constant,  then  to  be  lighted  in  that 
dwelling,  and  which  ought  to  warm  and  unite 
those  hearts  through  the  whole  of  their  life  ? 
7 


98 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


"Women  love  the  bonds  of  marriage  if  the  men 
do,  and  are  seldom  inclined  to  break  them :  but 
conjugial  love  is  of  such  a  nature,  that  it  requires 
reciprocation  in  kind ;  and,  where  singleness 
and  constancy  are  given,  singleness  and  con- 
stancy are  naturally  demanded  in  return.  With 
men,  the  special  conjugial  principle  is  not  so 
conspicuously  innate:  their  love  is  more  given 
to  wandering,  and  to  seeking  a  variety  of  objects 
upon  which  to  bestow  itself.  The  bonds  of  mar- 
riage operate  more  as  a  restraint  to  them,  and 
they  find  it  less  easy  to  fall  in  with  and  conform 
to  all  its  proper  and  just  requirements.  Hence 
we  perceive  the  work  that  is  to  be  done  in  them : 
those  wandering  or  roving  tendencies  are  what 
require  to  be  resisted  and  restrained ;  and  they 
need  all  the  aid  that  the  wives  can  contribute, 
through  their  greater  constancy  and  nicer  per- 
ceptions, to  enable  them  to  overcome,  and  to 
enter  into  that  true  conjugial  state  for  which  all 
were  designed. 

The  importance  of  these  truths  cannot  be 
over-estimated.  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate 
their  value.  They  possess  an  intrinsic  reality, 
which,  the  more  it  is  studied,  the  more  will  it  be 
seen ;  and,  the  more  it  is  seen  in  its  true  light,  the 
more  highly  will  it  be  appreciated.    Marriage  is 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


09 


the  keystone  of  human  society ;  and  conjugial 
love,  the  cement  that  binds  it  to  its  place.  If 
that  love  be  rendered  unholy  or  impure,  the  ce- 
ment turns  to  sand,  aud  the  whole  fabric  totters 
or  falls. 

Precisely  in  this  relation  lies  the  central  re- 
form of  all  others.  On  it  is  based  the  whole  hope 
of  the  world.  The  renovation  of  humanity  is 
to  begin  just  here.  This  is  the  very  focal  point 
of  its  initiation.  Here  the  Church  enters  into 
the  life  of  man ;  and  it  is  through  the  Church 
that  sanctification  is  to  be  wrought,  and  general 
improvement  insured. 

It  has  been  long  a  recognized  truth,  that  forth 
from  human  homes,  as  from  little  fountains,  were 
to  proceed  the  influences  that  are  to  reform  and 
elevate  society ;  but  a  closer  examination  carries 
the  analysis  back  a  step  further,  and  shows  the 
conjugial  relation  as  the  centre  of  the  home,  and 
the  spring,  or  fount,  of  the  influences  in  it. 

The  state  of  conjugial  love  with  the  married 
partners  determines  the  state  of  the  family :  and, 
if  that  love  has  the  Church  (or  heavenly  love 
and  wisdom)  in  it,  the  family  will  have  the 
Church  in  it :  and,  if  the  family  has  the  Church 
in  it,  the  world  will  have  the  Church  in  it. 

But  if  conjugial  love  be  allowed  to  decay,  or 


100 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


descends  to  a  low  plane  of  the  mind,  becoming 
only  a  worldly  or  a  natural  or  a  civil  relation,  or 
one  of  selfish  convenience  and  gratification,  there 
will  be  nothing  spiritual  or  purifying  or  elevat- 
ing in  it.  The  Church  then  leaves  it.  And,  if 
it  have  nothing  of  the  Church  in  it,  no  spiritual, 
purifying,  elevating  influence  will  go  forth  from 
it  into  the  family,  nor  from  the  family  into  the 
world. 

Where  true  conjugial  love  exists  with  the 
parents,  better  hereditary  tendencies  are  trans- 
mitted to  the  children.  The  innate  evils  of  their 
nature  are  modified  and  mitigated.  Old  ances- 
tral propensities  are  a  little  broken  up,  and  the 
offspring  partake  somewhat  of  the  acquired  dis- 
positions of  the  parents.  To  the  sons  is  commu- 
nicated a  better  faculty  of  growing  wise,  and  to 
the  daughters  a  better  faculty  of  loving  the 
things  of  true  wisdom.  Thus  by  both  is  inhe- 
rited a  greater  capacity  of  receiving  the  Church, 
and  a  more  ready  aptitude  for  bringing  forth  into 
a  life  of  regeneration  the  seeds  of  holy  truth. 
It  was  by  a  gradual  fall  that  the  world  has 
sunken  to  its  present  state ;  and  it  is  by  a  gra- 
dual rising  again,  extending  through  many  suc- 
cessive generations,  that  the  human  race  as  a 
mass  must  lift  itself  out  of  its  corruptions,  and 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


101 


stand  forth  at  last  in  the  fulness  of  its  original 
purity,  and  endowed  with  more  than  its  origi- 
nal strength. 

It  has  many  times  heen  said,  that  the  hopes 
of  humanity  rest  with  mothers ;  that,  to  them 
being  intrusted  the  care  and  education  of  the 
young,  the  duty  devolves  on  them  of  giving  them 
a  culture  and  a  training,  in  their  tender  and 
impressible  period,  which  shall  turn  them  in 
the  right  direction,  and  which,  it  is  hoped,  they 
will  continue  to  pursue  after  they  have  grown 
up.  The  truth  of  this  conception  we  have  no 
wish  to  deny.  Let  humanity  avail  itself  of  such 
education  to  the  utmost  extent.  The  good  of  it 
none  will  gainsay. 

And  yet  we  have  another  and  a  different  word 
to  speak  in  regard  to  it.  It  may  be  true,  that 
"  education  forms  the  common  mind ;  "  it  may  be 
true,  that,  "just  as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree's 
inclined."  But  it  will  be  found  in  after-years, 
that  the  kind  and  quality  of  the  fruit  which  the 
tree  will  bear  depends  more  upon  the  nature  of 
the  seed  from  which  it  is  propagated,  than  on 
any  peculiar  bending  or  training  that  might  be 
bestowed  upon  it  while  it  was  a  mere  twig  or 
shrub. 


102 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


We  must  go  back  a  step  further  to  get  at  the 
initial  point.  The  hope  of  the  world  rests  with 
wives.  They  are  the  repositaries,  the  warders 
or  keepers,  and  the  dispensers,  of  conjugial  love. 
"With  them  the  reform  must  begin ;  and  from  them, 
through  the  willing  and  active  co-operation  of 
husbands,  it  must  be  propagated. 

Marriage  is  to  be  made  not  only  a  thing  of  the 
natural  life,  but  of  the  spiritual  life ;  not  a 
merely  worldly  arrangement,  but  a  religious 
state.  The  inner  and  the  outer  life  will  then  be 
brought  into  correspondence.  A  harmony  will 
be  established  between  the  things  of  the  Church 
and  the  things  of  the  world,  between  the  things 
of  heaven  and  the  things  of  earth.  A  plenary 
union  between  the  two  will  take  place.  The 
members  of  the  Church  will  come  into  spiritual 
and  natural  marriage  at  the  same  time ;  the 
Lord's  truth  will  be  brought  to  an  intimate  con- 
junction with  the  minds  of  His  Church ;  and  thus 
the  Church  will  prepare  herself  to  become  the 
Bride  and  Wife  of  the  Lamb. 

The  New  Jerusalem  will  descend ;  God  Him- 
self will  tabernacle  among  men ;  the  state  of 
heaven  will  be  transferred,  and  become  the  state 
of  earth ;  the  Tree  of  Life  will  be  planted  once 
more  in  the  midst  of  the  garden,  and  its  leaves 


MUTUAL  DUTIES. 


103 


will  be  scattered  abroad  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations.  The  Church  will  be  clad  in  her  true 
wedding  garments,  —  in  complete  vesture  from 
head  to  foot.  Because  she  will  have  a  new  spi- 
ritual quality,  she  will  be  called  by  that  new 
name  which  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  shall  utter. 
She  will  be  called  Hephzibah;  and  her  land, 
Beulah :  for  the  Lord  will  take  delight  in  His 
people,  and  their  land  shall  be  married. 


CHAPTER  SEVENTH. 


Death  is  another  life.   We  bow  our  heads 
At  going  out,  we  think,  and  enter  straight 
Another  golden  chamber  of  the  kings, 
Larger  than  this,  and  lovelier." 

FESTUS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTUEE  LIFE? 

"  Fob,  in  the  resurrection,  they  neither  marry  nor  are 
given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of  god  in 
HEAVEN."  —  Matt.  xxii.  30. 

TMMORTALITY  !  —  do  we  often  realize  the 
meaning  of  the  word  when  we  use  it  ?  The 
soul  of  man  lives  for  ever.   What  is  it  that  sur- 
vives the  earthly  tenement  ?  What  is  the  soul  ? 

We  are  taught  in  the  Writings  of  the  New 
Jerusalem,  that  every  thing  which  enters  into 
the  composition  of  the  human  mind  is  immortal. 
Every  faculty  and  every  fundamental  proclivity 
possesses  everlasting  life.  Not  a  single  quality, 
trait,  or  disposition,  that  a  man  has,  is  laid  off 
with  the  material  body.  They  are  all  parts  and 
constituents  of  his  spirit,  and  they  all  go  with 
him  when  he  passes  away.  His  ruling  purpose, 
with  all  his  affections,  desires,  and  loves,  remain 
with  him.  They  combine  to  form  his  character, 
and  make  up  the  man  in  the  other  world  as  they 
formerly  did  in  this. 


108  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 

The  sex  of  each  individual  remains ;  and  the 
men  are  still  men,  while  the  women  are  still 
women.  The  affections  which  are  proper  to 
each  remain,  and  are  never  put  off  or  dispensed 
with,  to  eternity.  The  distinction  of  sex  being 
founded  in  the  most  fundamental  principles  of 
our  being,  the  desires,  the  affections,  and  the 
love  which  spring  forth  from  it  are  deeply 
rooted,  and  remain  among  the  most  firmly  fixed 
that  a  man  takes  with  him  into  the  other  life. 
There  they  exercise  a  controlling  influence  over 
his  state  and  destiny,  and  form  an  essential 
element  in  his  happiness  or  his  misery. 

The  various  relations  between  the  sexes,  which 
exist  on  earth,  exist  also  in  the  other  world. 
Friendships  are  contracted,  alliances  formed, 
betrothings  entered  into,  conjugial  unions  con- 
summated, and  lives  consecrated  to  the  fulfilment 
of  their  spiritual  duties  and  uses. 

The  doctrine  now  given  may  appear  to  con- 
flict (in  the  minds  of  some)  with  what  our  Lord 
says  in  the  words  which  stand  as  the  motto  of 
this  chapter,  as  well  as  in  the  parallel  passages 
of  Mark  and  Luke :  — 

"  And  Jesus,  answering,  said  unto  them,  The 
children  of  this  world  marry,  and  are  given  in 
marriage  ;  but  they  which  shall  be  accounted  wor- 


WIIAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 


109 


thy  to  obtain  that  world,  and  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead,  neither  marry,  nor  are  given  in  mar- 
riage."—  Luke  xx.  34,  35. 

As  they  read  in  the  literal  sense,  these  words 
have  the  appearance  of  teaching  a  doctrine  which 
is  directly  opposed  to  the  one  we  have  just  now 
brought  forward ;  and,  if  we  knew  nothing  of  the 
spiritual  sense  which  is  contained  everywhere 
in  the  Sacred  Scripture,  we  also,  no  doubt, 
should  rest  in  the  belief  of  the  truth  of  that 
appearance.  But,  in  the  light  that  is  afforded 
by  the  spiritual  sense,  we  see  this  matter  dif- 
ferently. "We  see  that  the  Lord's  words  here 
have  not  been  rightly  understood.  The  subject 
about  which  He  is  speaking  has  not  been  truly 
apprehended.  Men  have  supposed  that  He  was 
speaking  of  the  same  things  about  which  the 
Sadducees  were  thinking  when  they  put  their 
questions  to  Him,  and  that  He  meant  the  same 
kind  of  resurrection  and  the  same  kind  of  mar- 
riage which  they  meant. 

But  we  know,  because  in  His  "Word  He  so 
says,  that  the  Lord's  thoughts  are  not  as  men's 
thoughts ;  that  His  thoughts  are  as  high  above 
theirs  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth. 
And,  when  He  was  in  the  world,  He  was  continu- 
ally speaking  to  men  about  those  higher  things ; 


110  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 

He  was  continually  teaching  them  the  truths  of 
spiritual  and  eternal  life :  and  when  He  ap- 
peared, to  those  about  Him  who  did  not  believe 
on  Him,  to  be  directing  His  discourse  to  them, 
and  to  be  thinking  and  conversing  about  the 
natural  things  which  occupied  their  minds,  He 
was  in  reality  speaking  of  spiritual  things,  and 
addressing  His  discourse  to  all  who  shall  be  of 
His  spiritual  kingdom  in  all  ages,  both  on  earth 
and  in  heaven.  He  spake  by  correspondences ; 
and  so  veiled  those  heavenly  truths  which  He 
uttered,  from  the  natural  and  unbelieving  crowd 
around  Him,  in  material  and  worldly  symbols. 

"When  He  talked  with  the  woman  of  Samaria, 
at  the  well,  concerning  the  spiritual  truths  of 
everlasting  life  which  a  man  ought  to  thirst 
after  and  receive  into  his  mind,  He  did  so  under 
the  figure  of  natural  water  that  might  be  drawn 
from  the  well.  The  woman  understood  Him  to 
speak  only  of  the  natural  symbol ;  and  He  did 
not  undeceive  her :  He  allowed  her  to  remain  in 
ignorance  of  His  true  meaning. 

When  He  foretold  in  the  presence  of  the  Jews 
His  own  resurrection,  predicting  that  He  should 
rise  again  on  the  third  day  after  His  burial,  He 
did  so  by  saying  to  those  around  Him,  "  Destroy 
this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  rear  it  up." 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE?  Ill 


Those  who  heard  supposed  Him  to  mean  the 
building  of  wood  and  stone  in  or  near  which 
they  were  standing  ;  and  He  did  nothing  to 
remove  that  appearance,  or  to  correct  the  im- 
pression which  they  received.  The  explanation 
which  we  now  find  recorded  in  that  place  — 
"But  He  spake  of  the  temple  of  His  body" — 
was  not  heard  by  the  Jews,  but  was  supplied 
by  the  evangelist  many  years  after  the  Lord's 
words  were  uttered. 

And  when,  on  another  occasion,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  a  similar  audience,  He  delivered  His 
sublime  doctrine  concerning  that  spiritual  good 
and  spiritual  truth  which  He  came  into  the 
world  to  convey  to  men,  and  which  He  unceas- 
ingly imparts  to  all  those  who  truly  come  to  Him 
that  they  may  receive  it,  He  veiled  the  heavenly 
realities  behind  natural  symbols,  and  spake  to 
them  about  feeding  men  with  His  own  flesh  and 
blood.  Then  said  the  Jews,  "  How  can  this  man 
give  us  his  flesh  to  eat?"  and,  though  they 
"  strove  among  themselves  "  on  account  of  it,  He 
gave  them  no  explanation  of  His  meaning.  He 
did  not  attempt  to  correct  the  wrong  impression 
His  words  had  made,  but  left  their  thoughts 
to  take  their  own  natural  downward  direction. 
He  allowed  their  understandings  to  remain 


112  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 

just  where  they  were  with  respect  to  His  doc- 
trine. 

This  was  not  merely  an  occasional  or  excep- 
tional mode  of  speaking  on  the  part  of  our  Lord : 
it  was,  on  the  contrary,  His  most  usual  form  of 
discourse.  To  the  multitudes  He  clothed  His 
teachings  in  parables,  or  hid  the  interior  truths 
behind  representative  symbols  which  might  be 
sensuously  apprehended.  They  were  generally 
at  a  loss  to  understand  Him;  finding  it  even 
more  difficult  to  penetrate  through  the  husks  of 
His  words  to  the  corn  of  His  meaning,  than  men 
now  do  to  detect  the  meat  of  their  spirit  in  the 
shell  of  the  letter. 

So,  when  He  conversed  with  the  Sadducees 
on  the  occasion  recorded  in  the  twenty-second 
of  Matthew,  their  meaning  is  not  to  be  taken  as 
the  measure  of  His  meaning.  Their  thoughts 
took  one  direction  ;  but  His  thoughts  took  quite 
another.  They  were  thinking  about  life  in  this 
world,  and  were  intent  on  a  physical  resurrec- 
tion ;  but  He  thought  of  life  in  the  heavenly 
world,  and  spake  of  a  spiritual  resurrection. 
Their  minds  were  wholly  occupied  with  the 
subject  and  relations  of  natural  marriage,  while 
His  dwelt  upon  the  holy  mysteries  of  the  spirit- 
ual marriage. 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE?  113 


By  the  spiritual  resurrection  is  meant  the 
process  of  regeneration,  —  that  change  which  is 
called  passing  from  death  unto  life ;  the  pro- 
cess by  which  a  man  rises  out  of  a  natui-al  or 
worldly  state  as  to  his  interiors  into  a  spiritual 
or  heavenly  one.  This  change  has  no  respect 
to  the  body,  but  affects  only  the  mind.  By  it 
the  man  is  raised  out  of  a  state  in  which  he  was 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins  into  one  in  which  he 
becomes  alive  to  the  requirements  of  divine 
truth  and  the  affections  of  divine  good. 

It  is  the  same  resurrection  of  which  our  Lord 
speaks  in  another  place,  where  He  says,  "  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life."  By  which  is 
meant  that  He  Himself  is  the  sanctifying  power 
by  which  regeneration  is  effected. 

It  is  that  change  of  heart  and  mind  referred 
to  by  the  apostle  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of 
Hebrews,  where  he  speaks  of  "  a  better  resur- 
rection "  than  that  of  being  raised  again  from 
natural  death  into  conscious  life.  In  the  twen- 
tieth chapter  of  Revelation,  it  is  called  "the 
first  resurrection  ; "  and  it  is  said,  "  Blessed 
and  holy  is  he  that  has  part  in  the  first  re- 
surrection: on  such  the  second  death  hath  no 
power,  but  they  shall  be  priests  of  God  and  of 
Christ." 

8 


114  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 

That  this  is  the  resurrection  which  is  meant 
by  our  Lord  in  the  passage  before  us,  is  quite 
clear  from  the  words  which  are  there  used ; 
for  the  Lord  teaches,  that  the  resurrection  of 
which  He  is  speaking  is  attained  to  only  by  the 
good,  and  not  by  the  evil.  Thus  He  says,  "  But 
they  which  shall  be  accounted  worthy  to  obtain 
that  world,"  —  implying  that  they  who  are  not 
worthy  do  not  attain  to  the  resurrection  of 
which  He  is  here  treating ;  and  He  adds,  "  For 
they  are  equal  unto  the  angels,  and  are  the 
children  of  God,  being  the  children  of  the  resur- 
rection." 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  the  common  resur- 
rection of  all  men  cannot  be  the  one  here  referred 
to,  —  that  resurrection  by  which  every  man  rises 
after  death  into  conscious  life  in  the  world  of 
spirits ;  for  that  resurrection  is  attained  to  by 
every  human  being.  The  evil  as  well  as  the 
good,  and  the  evil  equally  as  the  good,  are  thus 
raised  up,  and  come  forth  into  the  existence  of 
the  other  world.  But  the  children  of  that  re- 
surrection which  our  Lord  here  describes  "  are 
equal  to  the  angels,  and  are  the  children  of 
God ; "  and  they  are  said  to  be  the  children 
of  God  because  they  are  children  of  this  resur- 
rection.    Whence  it  is  clear,  that  the  "  first 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 


115 


resurrection  "  is  the  one  here  meant,  —  the 
resurrection  of  regeneration,  the  resurrection 
from  a  state  of  spiritual  and  moral  death  to  a 
state  of  heavenly  and  holy  life,  —  a  rising-again, 
which  does  not  bring  a  man  back  to  life  in  a  new 
physical  body  here  in  this  world,  nor  necessarily 
take  him  out  of  the  world  of  men  into  the  world 
of  spirits,  but  which,  when  he  does  pass  from 
the  mortal  sphere,  will  lift  him  beyond  the 
"  power  "  of  "  the  second  death,"  into  an  asso- 
ciation with  the  inmates  of  the  angelic  hea- 
ven. 

As  it  is  with  respect  to  the  resurrection  here 
treated  of,  so  it  is  in  regard  to  the  marriage 
mentioned  at  the  same  time.  It  is  the  spiritual 
marriage  that  is  meant. 

It  will  be  seen,  on  a  careful  examination  of  the 
passage,  that  the  two  things  are  very  closely 
connected ;  and,  in  order  to  maintain  the  unity 
of  the  thought,  we  must  give  it  this  interpreta- 
tion. 

By  the  spiritual  marriage  is  meant  that  con- 
junction with  the  Lord  which  a  man  attains  by 
regeneration.  His  heart  and  mind  become  re- 
novated, and  he  is  joined  to  the  Lord  in  love. 
His  affections  are  united  to  the  truth.    He  wills 


116  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE  7 


and  desires  to  obey  the  Lord's  commandments ; 
finding  his  chief  enjoyment  and  delight  in  con- 
forming to  their  requirements.  The  more  this 
union  is  effected,  the  more  are  order  and  quiet 
and  harmony  and  peace  introduced  into  all  the 
faculties  of  the  mind :  and,  when  the  members 
of  a  church  come  into  this  state,  they  are  said 
to  dwell  in  the  land  of  Beulah ;  that  is,  the 
Church  is  then  called  "  the  Married  Land."  As 
we  read  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah :  — 

"  For  thou  shalt  be  called  Hephzibab ; 
And  thy  land,  Beulah: 
For  Jehovah  delighteth  in  thee, 
And  thy  land  shall  be  married." 

[Isa.  lxii.] 

In  a  supreme  sense,  the  spiritual  marriage 
takes  place  in  the  Lord  Himself,  and  is  seen  in 
the  union  of  His  Supreme  Divinity  with  His 
Glorified  Humanity,  —  the  entire  conjunction 
of  two  natures  in  one  Person,  —  the  union  by 
which  all  things  of  the  Church  are  produced, 
and  through  which  men  are  redeemed,  regene- 
rated, and  saved. 

In  a  derived  or  representative  sense,  the 
spiritual  marriage  is  that  relation  which  exists 
between  the  Lord  and  His  true  Church,  —  the 
one  by  virtue  of  which  the  Lord  is  called  in  the 
Scriptures  the  Bridegroom  and  Husband,  while 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE?  117 


the  Church  is  called  the  Bride  and  Wife.  As 
we  read  in  Isaiah  — 

"  For  thy  Maker  is  thy  Husband ; 
Jehovah  of  hosts  is  His  name." 

We  see,  therefore,  that,  in  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
ture, the  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  compared  to  a 
marriage,  and  is  frequently  called  a  marriage. 
And,  when  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  He  spake  of 
spiritual  things  by  this  comparison  or  corre- 
spondence. He  called  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  a 
marriage  or  a  wedding.  He  spoke  of  that  un- 
derstanding, and  faith  of  genuine  doctrine,  with 
which  a  man's  mind  should  be  clothed,  as  being 
a  wedding  garment ;  He  spake  of  hearing  the 
gospel  preached,  as  being  invited  to  a  wed- 
ding ;  and  of  seeking  to  know  something  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  as  going  out  to  meet  the  bride- 
groom ;  and  described  entrance  into  a  heavenly 
state  of  mind,  and  so  internal  union  with  the 
Church  and  spiritual  conjunction  with  Himself, 
by  entrance  into  a  marriage  feast. 

Thus  we  read  in  Matthew:  — 

"  The  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  a  cer- 
tain king,  which  made  a  marriage  for  his  son, 
and  sent  forth  his  servants  to  call  those  that 
were  bidden  to  the  wedding."  —  Chap.  xxii. 


118  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE  7 

And  in  another  place :  — 

"  Then  shall  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  be  likened 
unto  ten  virgins,  which  took  their  lamps,  and 
went  forth  to  meet  the  Bridegroom/'  Five  of 
them  being  wise,  or  prepared,  entered  in  with 
him  to  the  marriage.  —  Chap.  xxv. 

And  in  the  Book  of  Revelation :  — 

"  The  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  his 
Wife  hath  made  herself  ready."  —  "  Blessed  are 
they  which  are  called  unto  the  marriage-supper 
of  the  Lamb."  —  Chap.  xix. 

So  in  the  prophet,  where  the  Church  is  spo- 
ken to  as  the  Married  Land,  it  is  said,  — 

"  For  as  a  young  man  marrieth  a  virgin, 
So  shall  thy  sons  marry  thee; 
And  as  the  bridegroom  rejoiceth  over  the  bride, 
So  shall  thy  God  rejoice  over  thee." 

Finally,  by  turning  to  the  twenty-second  of 
Matthew,  we  shall  find  that  the  Lord's  words  to 
the  Sadducees  are  in  reality  a  part  of  His  dis- 
course on  the  marriage  of  the  king's  son ;  that, 
though  His  hearers  might  have  passed  from 
that  subject,  He  Himself  had  not,  but  was  still 
speaking  in  continuation  of  it :  therefore  His 
own  immediate  words  serve  to  determine  the 
marriage  of  which  He  was  speaking. 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE?  119 

From  the  things  which  have  now  been  ad- 
duced, we  may  form  a  rational  conclusion  as 
to  what  the  Lord  meant  when  He  spake  of  mar- 
rying and  of  being  given  in  marriage.  We  can 
see  that  He  was  thinking  and  treating,  not  of 
natural  things,  but  of  spiritual  things  ;  that  He 
was  not  referring  to  connubial  unions  between 
two  persons  of  opposite  sex,  but  was  giving 
doctrine  concerning  that  conjunction  of  soul 
which  may  exist  between  a  man  and  the  heaven- 
ly kingdom. 

When  He  says  that  the  children  of  this  world 
marry  and  are  given  in  marriage,  He  means 
that  this  present  life  is  the  time  for  regenera- 
tion. This  world  is  the  place  where  the  sons 
of  the  Church  may  truly  marry  the  Church. 
Here,  before  they  depart  to  another  life,  must 
the  work  be  done  which  unites  them  spiritually 
to  the  heavenly  kingdom,  and  makes  them  chil- 
dren of  God,  and  heirs  of  salvation.  This  world 
is  the  place  where  the  oil  must  be  got,  and 
where  the  lamps  must  be  filled  and  trimmed, 
and  set  to  burning.  Here  is  where  our  various 
evil  propensities  are  to  be  opposed  and  over- 
come, and  where  our  selfish  and  worldly  loves 
are  to  be  put  away,  in  order  that,  in  their 
stead,  Ave  may  be  able  to  receive  into  our 


120  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE? 

minds,  and  feel,  those  opposite  good  loves  to 
the  Lord  and  the  neighbor,  which  will  produce 
a  living  connection  between  the  good  and  the 
truth  within  us ;  that  will  unite  our  affections 
intimately  to  the  divine  law  as  the  rule  of  life, 
and  conjoin  us  in  understanding  and  will  to  the 
Lord  Himself. 

And  when  He  says,  "  But  they  which  shall  be 
accounted  worthy  to  obtain  that  world,  and  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead,  neither  marry  nor 
are  given  in  marriage,"  He  means  that  none  of 
this  preparatory  work  can  be  done  in  the  other 
life ;  that  the  work  of  regeneration  is  not  re- 
peated ;  that,  such  as  is  the  union  between  the 
soul  and  heaven  which  has  been  provided  for 
here,  so  it  essentially  remains.  Oil  not  bought 
—  a  state  of  spiritual  good  not  prepared  for 
here  —  can  in  no  wise  be  procured  there.  They 
that  are  ready  go  in  to  the  marriage ;  but,  to 
others,  the  door  is  shut. 

Essential  quality  of  state  is  not  changed  with 
man  to  eternity ;  and  whatever  progress  a  spirit 
makes,  after  entering  the  other  world,  consists  in 
the  further  opening  and  production  of  the  quali- 
ties acquired  in  this. 

From  all  that  has  now  been  said,  we  are  able 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE?  121 

to  see  something  of  the  great  significance  and 
importance  of  that  kind  of  marriage  which  con- 
sists in  the  union  of  man  and  woman.  We  have 
seen,  that,  in  its  origin,  it  is  not  only  spiritual 
and  heavenly,  but  also  divine  and  infinite  ;  that 
it  is  a  relation  not  limited  to  the  conditions  of 
this  present  world,  but  pertaining  equally  to 
the  life  after  death ;  and  that,  therefore,  unions 
which  are  formed  in  time,  may,  if  they  are  truly 
constituted,  last  to  eternity. 

With  these  views  in  mind,  we  shall  be  pre- 
pared to  go  forward,  and  consider  in  their 
proper  light  some  of  the  characteristics  and 
conditions  of  the  marriage  relation  in  the  other 
life. 


CHAPTEK  EIGHTH. 


"  To  whom  the  angel,  with  a  smile  that  glowed 
Celestial  rosy-red  (Love's  proper  hue), 
Answered,  '  Let  it  suffice  thee  that  thou  know'st 
Us  happy;  and,  without  love,  no  happiness. 
Whatever  pure  thou  in  the  body  enjoy'st, 
(And  pure  thou  wert  created,)  we  enjoy 
In  eminence,  and  obstacle  find  none 
Of  membrane,  joint,  or  limb,  exclusive  bars: 
Easier  than  air  with  air,  if  spirits  embrace, 
Total  they  mix,  union  of  pure  with  pure 
Desiring;  nor  restrained  conveyance  need, 
As  flesh  to  mix  with  flesh,  or  soul  with  soul.'  " 

Paradise  Lost,  book  viii. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  CONJUGIAL  RELATION  IN  THE  LIFE  HEREAFTER. 

"  But  he  said  unto  them,  all  men  cannot  receive  this 
sating,  save  they  to  whom  it  is  given."  —  matt.  xix.  11. 

rpHAT  there  are  marriages  in  heaven  has  al- 


ready  been  maintained  or  implied  in  the 
preceding  treatment  of  this  subject;  and  it  now 
remains  to  state  some  general  principles  in 
regard  to  them,  and  offer  a  few  considerations 


The  first  inquiry  which  naturally  arises  in  this 
connection  is  in  relation  to  the  marriage  cove- 
nants of  earth,  —  whether  they  are  ratified  in 
heaven  or  not.  Many  who  are  married  here  will 
desire  to  know  whether  they  will  meet  again 
after  death ;  whether  they  will  then  know  each 
other;  whether  they  will  there  be  again  united 
as  they  were  in  the  world.  It  is  our  design  to 
make  a  few  statements  in  regard  to  the  condi- 


growing  out  of  those  principles. 


126  THE  CONJUGIAL  RELATION 


tion  of  married  partners  after  death,  in  such  form 
as  to  suggest  answers  to  numerous  questions  of 
this  kind  as  they  arise  in  different  minds.  There 
will  also  be  an  endeavor  to  give  them  in  such 
connection  with  the  spiritual  causes  which  pro- 
duce them,  as  that  the  rational  ground  of  them 
may  be  seen  at  the  same  time. 

It  has  been  already  premised,  that  every  thing 
really  belonging  to  a  man  lives  with  him  after 
death.  Every  love,  affection,  desire,  inclination, 
propensity,  and  appetite  goes  along  with  him, 
and  survives  in  the  other  world.  Nothing  what, 
ever  pertaining  to  the  mind  and  its  states  is  laid 
aside  in  the  transition  from  this  life  to  that. 
Only  the  earthy  matters,  covering  the  real  body 
like  a  crude  shell,  are  put  off  at  death. 

As  the  whole  man  and  whole  woman  lives 
again,  or  rather  continues  to  live,  after  the  phy- 
sical body  is  cast  off,  therefore  the  properties, 
passions,  emotions,  endowments,  and  qualities 
peculiar  to  each,  remain  the  same.  Those  things 
which  mark  the  distinction  of  sex  begin  in  the 
inmost  region  of  the  soul,  and  thence  proceed 
outwards  and  downwards  into  all  things  of  the 
mind  and  all  things  of  the  body.  Hence  those 
peculiarities  of  the  emotional  nature  innate  to 
each,  by  which  the  sexes  are  mutually  attractive ; 


IN  THE  LIFE  HEREAFTER. 


127 


the  love,  with  all  those  tendencies  and  aptitudes 
severally  characteristic  of  each,  —  especially 
remain  :  they  are  among  the  most  permanent 
things  of  the  life.  Having  their  seat  and  origin 
in  the  inner  parts  of  the  spiritual  nature,  they 
flow  forth  as  from  a  continual  fountain,  pervad- 
ing and  qualifying  the  more  outward  things 
of  the  life.  However  transitory  other  states  of 
mind  may  have  been,  however  slight  a  hold  other 
dispositions  and  qualities  may  have  acquired  on 
the  spirit,  and  however  easily  or  rapidly  they 
may  be  rejected  and  removed  in  the  other  life, 
those  which  pertain  to  the  sexual  and  conjugial 
relations  are  more  abiding.  Those  states  not 
only  continue  with  the  individual,  but  they  con- 
tinue of  the  same  quality  they  had  acquired  in 
the  world.  That  general  state  which  was  in- 
wardly in  them,  while  here,  remains  inwardly 
within  them  there.  As  was  the  interior  thought 
and  will  with  respect  to  marriage  while  in  the 
life  of  the  body,  so  it  continues  to  be  when  men 
and  women  come  into  the  life  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Those  who  here  were  in  chaste  love,  or 
love  truly  conjugial,  are  in  similarly  pure  love 
there ;  while  those  who  contracted  unchaste  or 
anti-conjugial  love  here  are  in  similarly  impure 
and  unholy  love  there.    It  is  in  the  nature  of 


128  THE  CONJUGIAL  RELATION 


this  love  to  open  and  expand  itself  continually 
more  and  more ;  thus,  as  it  were,  to  grow ;  to 
evolve  new  things,  to  pass  continually  into  new 
states,  and  to  unfold  from  within  itself  new  de- 
lights. Pure  and  chaste  love  opens  and  expands 
in  this  manner,  in  the  light  and  heat  of  the  spi- 
ritual world,  perpetually  more  and  more  towards 
heaven,  with  its  satisfaction,  delight,  and  bless- 
edness ;  while  impure  and  unchaste  love  opens 
in  a  similar  manner,  in  the  spiritual  world,  in  an 
opposite  direction,  and  continues  to  expand  and 
unfold  itself  until  its  essential  qualities  are 
clearly  manifested ;  when  it  is  judged,  or  joined 
to  its  like,  in  what  is  for  ever  unholy,  unhappy, 
undelightful,  and  unblessed. 

When  men  and  women  pass  out  of  the  body, 
and  enter  the  spiritual  world,  they  go  through  a 
preparation  for  the  life  they  are  afterwards  to 
live.  At  first,  they  are  in  externals  ;  that  is,  in 
those  exterior  states  of  mind  nearest  the  body, 
and  in  which  they  principally  were  while  they 
lived  in  the  life  of  the  body.  These  were  the 
states  into  which  they  entered  when  they  went 
into  the  society  of  others  in  the  world,  —  the 
habit  of  mind  and  outward  character  they  were 
accustomed  to  display  and  wear  in  their  current 
intercourse  with  their  fellows.  Consequently, 


IN  THE  LIFE  HEREAFTER. 


129 


in  this  state,  in  the  other  life,  men  are  very  little 
changed  from  what  they  were  before  they  left 
this  world.  Their  character  is  the  same;  their 
general  conduct  very  much  the  same  ;  and  their 
whole  outward  aspect,  though  in  some  cases 
undergoing  slight  modifications,  yet,  in  general, 
remaining  almost  exactly  similar ;  while  the  good 
and  the  evil  are  still  mixed  together. 

In  this  condition,  departed  spirits  continue  for 
some  time,  —  until  they  are  prepared  by  the  or- 
derly development  of  their  life  to  pass  into  the 
next  state.  While  they  remain  thus,  they  are 
for  the  most  part  associated  with  those  whom 
they  had  known  or  been  assimilated  to  in  the 
world,  —  neighbors,  relatives,  friends,  acquaint- 
ances, countrymen,  who  had  departed  this  life 
before  them,  or  near  the  time  at  which  they  did. 
Those  who  had  been  married  partners  on  earth 
meet  there,  provided  both  are  deceased ;  know 
each  other,  and  live  together  again  as  in  the 
world.  This  they  continue  to  do  as  long  as  that 
state  lasts :  for,  while  they  are  in  their  exteri- 
ors, they  are  not  aware  of  their  internal,  spiritual 
state  with  regard  to  each  other,  and  cannot  de- 
termine whether  they  are  conjugially  united  for 
eternity  or  not,  any  more  than  they  could  while 
they  lived  in  the  world;  but  this  is  revealed 


130  THE  CONJDGIAL  RELATION 


to  them  when  they  pass  into  the  second  condi- 
tion. 

Those  who  have  been  twice  married  on  earth 
meet  both  partners  in  that  first  state,  if  the 
times  of  their  respective  decease  are  near  enough 
to  allow ;  and  both  unions  are  repeated,  as  in 
the  world.  Men  who  have  had  several  wives, 
successively  join  themselves  to  each,  provided 
they  meet  them  there,  and  their  mutual  sympa- 
thies afford  sufficient  attraction.  The  same  is 
true  of  women  who  have  had  several  husbands  : 
they  are  successively  joined  to  each. 

These  successive  changes  and  unions  are  ef- 
fected in  mutual  freedom  between  the  parties 
there  as  they  are  here,  and  can  take  place  with- 
out disorder  or  confusion  in  that  first  state ; 
for  those  different  married  partners  do  not  all 
enter  that  state  at  the  same  time,  and  hence  are 
seldom  prepared  to  depart  from  it  at  one  and  the 
same  time.  Many  years  are  frequently  spent 
there.  Those  who  decease  earliest,  and  go  there, 
soonest  depart :  and  one  who  was  twice  married 
in  the  world  might  be  successively  united  to  the 
two  partners  again  in  that  state,  both  not  being 
there  at  the  same  time  ;  one  having  passed  from 
it  before  the  other  entered. 

But  circumstances  of  this  nature  take  place 


IN  THE  LIFE  HEREAFTER. 


131 


.with  very  great  variety ;  and  it  not  unfrequently 
happens,  that  the  natural  decease  of  partners 
occurs  so  far  distant  from  each  other  in  time,  — 
as  twenty  or  twenty-five  years,  —  that  the  one 
who  departed  first  will  have  passed  from  that 
state  before  the  other  enters  it :  in  which  case, 
of  course,  they  do  not  meet  and  live  together. 
The  same  is  true  also  of  those  who  are  of  dis- 
positions so  diverse  and  inharmonious  as  to 
render  it  manifest,  while  in  the  world,  that  they 
were  not  united. 

All  these  things  are  under  the  constant  su- 
perintendence of  the  Divine  Providence ;  and 
although  many  of  the  events  connected  with 
them  may  have  the  appearance  of  occurring 
irregularly  or  by  chance,  yet  such  in  reality  is 
not  the  case.  It  is  provided  by  the  Lord,  that 
all  those  pairs  shall  meet  and  associate  there  to 
whom  any  good  can  be  imparted  by  it ;  while 
those  who  would  not  receive  benefit  from  it  are 
not  led  into  such  a  connection.  Those  are  led 
into  it  with  whom  there  was  an  appearance  of 
their  being  united  while  they  were  in  the  world. 
They  were  united  as  to  their  external  affection 
and  thought,  and  opportunity  is  there  given  for 
them  to  discover  in  freedom  whether  they  be 
also  united  internally  and  spiritually.    If  such 


132 


THE  CONJUGIAL  RELATION 


is  the  case,  then,  when  they  have  finished  that 
first  period  together,  they  pass  into  the  next  in 
association,  and  continue  married  for  ever. 

The  end  or  design  of  these  preparatory  states 
in  the  other  world  is,  that  every  one's  life  may 
be  brought  into  harmony  or  consistency  with 
itself ;  that  his  external  may  come  fully  to  agree 
with  his  internal ;  and  that  all  transitory  or  out- 
ward qualities,  not  agreeing  with  the  ruling  bent 
and  inclination  of  the  life,  may  be  put  off ;  also 
that  each  one  may  be  associated  with  a  partner 
agreeing  in  quality  and  state  with  this  ruling 
love  or  disposition,  that  so  the  union  may  be 
one  of  inmost  mutual  sympathy,  and,  being 
founded  on  unity  of  soul  and  spirit,  may  en- 
dure to  eternity.  For  this  purpose,  the  transi- 
tion there  from  the  state  of  the  exteriors  to  the 
state  of  the  interiors  is  successive  and  gradual. 
Spirits  begin  by  alternating  from  one  state  to 
the  other.  They  are  remitted  for  a  while  into 
their  interiors,  and  then  return  to  their  former 
external  condition. 

It  is  a  circumstance  resulting  from  the  es- 
sence of  things  and  the  spiritual  constitution 
of  man,  that  the  good  are  wisest  and  best  when 
in  their  interior  states  of  mind ;  and,  when  they 
go  down  into  their  exterior  states,  they  appear 


EN  THE  LIFE  HEREAFTER. 


133 


comparatively  unwise,  or  no  wiser  than  others. 
Their  good  also  is  covered  and  clogged,  and 
60  obscured,  by  the  frailties  and  impurities  of 
their  natural  life.  They  are  unable  to  bring 
forth  all  their  good  and  truth,  and  manifest  them 
to  view,  in  their  outward  life  and  conduct. 

With  the  evil,  the  case  is  different :  their  ex- 
ternal states  are  their  best  states.  When  they 
are  remitted  into  states  of  their  interiors,  they 
are  thereby  removed  from  the  good  and  truth 
they  possess,  and  thence  become  less  wise  and 
more  evil.  Thus,  while  the  good  and  the  evil 
may  externally  appear  very  much  alike,  inter- 
nally they  are  quite  different,  and  even  oppo- 
site. From  this  cause  it  is  that  the  good  and 
the  evil  separate  from  each  other  on  passing 
into  the  second  state  in  the  other  life,  and  each 
join  themselves  to  their  like.  For  the  same 
reason,  also,  married  partners,  who  are  both 
good,  and  who,  until  then,  have  remained  to- 
gether, frequently  separate  on  entering  that 
state ;  for  then  it  is  that  those  inward  diver- 
sities of  character  are  revealed  which  forbid 
that  they  should  ever  be  freely  united  into  one. 
Hence  those,  who  then  make  that  discovery  in 
regard  to  themselves,  withdraw  from  each  other, 
and  the  connection  is  dissolved.    Sometimes  the 


134  THE  CONJUGIAL  RELATION. 


husband  first  makes  the  discovery,  and  leaves 
his  wife  ;  at  others,  the  wife  first  has  a  percep- 
tion of  it,  and  withdraws  from  her  husband  ;  and 
sometimes  it  is  perceived  alike  by  both,  when 
they  mutually  retire  from  each  other. 


CHAPTER  NINTH. 


"  The  wicked  tumeth  good  into  evil; 
For  his  mind  is  warped  within  him: 
But  the  heart  of  the  righteous  is  chaste; 
His  conscience  casteth  off  sin." 


• 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  TWO  WAYS  ;  OR,  THE  CALLED  AND  THE  CHOSEN. 

"  SO  THOSE  SERVANTS  WENT  OUT  INTO  THE  HIGHWAYS,  AND 
GATHERED  TOGETHER  ALL  AS  MANY  AS  THEY  FOUND,  BOTH 
BAD  AND    GOOD;    AND  THE  WEDDING  WAS    FURNISHED  WITH 

guests."  —  Matt.  xxii.  10. 


I^HE  effect  of  that  alternation  of  state  from  the 


-1-  exteriors  to  the  interiors  of  the  spirit,  and 
back  again,  —  of  which  we  have  already  spoken, 
—  is  to  reduce  the  two  to  consistency  and  cor- 
respondence ;  to  make  them  fully  agree  with 
each  other,  so  that  the  whole  exterior  of  the 
person  shall  be  in  exact  harmony  with  his  inte- 
rior will  and  disposition.  The  good,  in  this  way, 
are  enabled  to  manifest  completely  all  the  good- 
ness and  all  the  intelligence  there  is  in  them ; 
and  the  evil  clearly  reveal  all  the  wickedness  and 
all  the  falsehood  there  was  inwardly  concealed 
in  them. 

The  wisdom  of  this  spiritual  law  becomes 
manifest  the  moment  it  is  contemplated  in  ra- 


138 


TOE  TWO  WAYS  ;  OR,  THE 


tional  light.  How  often  do  all  good  men  regret 
the  loss  of  favorable  opportunities !  With  what 
an  ardent  wish  of  retrospective  reformation  do 
earnest  and  truthful  minds  sometimes  look  back 
upon  certain  portions  of  their  own  past  history ! 
How  frequently  do  we  think  ourselves,  and  hear 
it  expressed  by  others,  that,  if  certain  events  of 
life  were  to  happen  again,  we  should  conduct 
ourselves  quite  differently  in  regard  to  them ! 
We  foster  an  impression,  that  we  should  do  bet- 
ter a  second  time  in  certain  emergencies  than  we 
did  the  first.  The  good  man  regrets  many  of 
his  past  acts,  and  states  of  mind,  and  judges  that, 
another  time,  he  should  avoid  certain  unkind 
deeds  and  unwise  words.  Not  a  few  declare, 
that,  if  they  had  their  lives  to  live  over  again, 
they  should  pursue  a  very  different  course,  and 
display  a  very  different  character;  and  it  has 
nearly  passed  into  a  settled  maxim  of  worldly 
wisdom,  that  a  man  needs  almost  to  have  lived 
one  life  here  in  the  world  in  order  to  know  how 
to  pass  through  it  aright. 

Well,  these  desires  or  aspirations  are  to  be 
realized  by  each  and  every  one ;  not  in  the  pre- 
sent world,  but  in  the  other.  Our  life  is  to  be 
lived  over  again,  in  those  preparatory  states,  in 
the  world  of  spirits,  of  which  we  have  just  spo- 


CALLED  AND  THE  CHOSEN.  139 

ken.  The  precise  scenes  of  earth  are  not  to  be 
reproduced,  nor  shall  we  be  surrounded  by  the 
same  circumstances  or  the  same  friends  and  ene- 
mies ;  but  the  same  general  states  of  mind  will 
be  excited,  and  return,  in  successive  order,  as 
they  occurred  in  the  world,  from  childhood 
to  death.  All  our  former  experiences  will  re- 
appear, and  we  shall  have  the  opportunity  of 
selection  and  revision. 

It  will  then  be  seen  whether  our  retrospective 
repentances  have  been  real ;  whether  our  sor- 
rows for  past  misconduct  were  inwardly  sincere ; 
whether  our  regrets  for  sinful  states,  acts,  and 
words,  were  indeed  genuine  contritions.  In  that 
spiritual  review'  of  our  past  lives,  we  shall  in- 
evitably cling  to  and  keep  whatsoever  we  had 
inwardly  loved.  Those  things  which  in  the 
world  we  had  internally  meant  will  be  the  things 
which  we  shall  then  select  and  perpetually  ap- 
propriate. 

By  being  remitted  alternately,  as  we  have 
said,  into  exterior  and  interior  states,  spirits  in 
the  other  world  are  enabled  to  view  both  sides 
of  their  former  life  in  succession  and  contrast ; 
and  that  which  is  most  attractive  to  them  they 
will  be  sure  to  adopt.  When  the  good  come 
into  their  interior  states,  they  remember  the 


140  THE  TWO  ways;  or,  the 

fallacies  and  bad'  feelings  which  had  animated 
them  while  in  externals ;  and  they  reject,  repu- 
diate, and  condemn  them  more  and  more  at  every 
returning  opportunity.  When  they  again  pass 
through  a  state  in  which  they  had  before  been 
betrayed  into  wrong  by  some  propensity  of  their 
natural  life,  they  carefully  avoid  a  repetition  of 
the  evil,  and,  instead  thereof,  bring  forth  and 
manifest  some  of  their  interior  wisdom  and  in- 
terior love  in  the  very  externals  of  their  con- 
duct. By  continual  recurrence  of  experiences 
like  these  in  that  preparatory  state,  the  good  are 
at  length  enabled  to  bring  their  exteriors  into 
harmony  with  their  interiors,  so  that  they  entire- 
ly correspond  the  one  to  the  other.  Their  out- 
ward conduct,  habits,  manners,  and  appearance 
are  brought  into  perfect  accord  with  their  in- 
ward desires  and  intentions.  It  may  be  said, 
that  they  realize  in  actual  life  their  own  ideal  of 
character;  for  they  are  completely  what  they 
most  desire  themselves  to  be.  They  are  then 
permanently  in  states  of  their  interiors;  and, 
after  some  further  instruction,  are  made  ready 
for  heaven. 

With  the  evil,  the  experience  is  similar ;  but 
the  result  is  different.  In  the  exterior  states, 
in  which  they  are  permitted  for  some  time  to 


CALLED  AND  THE  CHOSEN.  141 

remain,  and  in  which  they  have  more  or  less  in- 
tercourse with  the  good,  they  can  perceive  the 
wickedness,  and  also  the  fallacies,  and,  as  it 
were,  the  insanities,  of  their  interior  life ;  and, 
if  they  would,  they  might  then  repent,  and  re- 
ject and  remove  them :  but,  if  they  loved  them 
in  the  world,  they  are  sure  to  love  them  there  ; 
for  the  ruling  love  is  not  changed.  The  oftener 
they  return  into  their  interior  states,  the  more 
they  return  into  themselves,  the  more  do  they 
love  their  insanities  and  their  iniquities,  and  the 
more  do  they  reject  from  themselves  all  the  out- 
ward semblances  of  goodness  and  truth ;  until 
at  length  their  outward  states  and  inward  states 
perfectly  agree,  and  they  are  joined  for  ever  to 
their  own  spiritual  kindred.  While  that  love 
which  is  in  accordance  with  gospel  precept  leads 
continually  to  heaven,  adulterous  love,  or  all 
that  is  contrary  to  such  precept,  leads  as  con- 
stantly towards  hell. 

From  this  brief  statement,  we  may  derive 
some  understanding  of  the  kind  of  trial  and 
judgment  that  awaits  all  men  in  the  other  life  ; 
and  we  can  also  discern  from  it  some  of  the 
uses  to  married  partners  which  grow  out  of 
the  repetition  of  their  wedded  life  in  that  pre- 
paratory spiritual  state. 


142  THE  two  ways;  or,  the 

If  they  were  only  naturally  united  in  their 
love,  and  not  at  the  same  time  spiritually,  it 
gives  them  an  opportunity  of  making  the  dis- 
covery. The  divine  mercy  and  providence  of 
the  Lord  are  always  over  us  every  moment  of  our 
lives,  every  step  of  our  journey,  at  every  stage 
of  our  existence ;  and  a  first  end  of  that  mercy 
is  to  provide  for  our  freedom.  The  human 
mind  must  for  ever  choose  for  itself  in  the  light 
of  the  best  intelligence  it  is  able  to  command. 
In  no  other  way  can  any  evil  be  rejected,  or  any 
good  appropriated.  In  no  other  way  can  any 
love  be  increased,  or  any  affinity  strengthened. 
For  this  reason,  the  Lord  carefully  guards  all  the 
ties  and  fastenings  and  fixtures  of  the  mind,  that 
they  be  not  too  rudely  severed  or  too  deeply 
injured. 

If  two  partners,  not  conjugially  united,  are 
nevertheless  joined  together  in  strong  natural 
affection,  they  are  permitted,  in  the  other  life, 
to  make  the  discovery  of  their  want  of  internal 
union  by  slow  degrees  and  by  actual  experi- 
ment. It  is  allowed  to  become  mutually  per- 
ceptible to  both,  that  the  affection  may  gradually 
undergo  a  change,  and  at  length  the  connection 
be  relinquished  freely,  from  mutual  consent  and 
choice.    On  the  other  hand,  where  two  are  con- 


CALLED  AND  THE  CHOSEN.  143 


jugially  united,  it  affords  opportunity  for  that 
fact  to  become  equally  manifest  to  both.  It 
serves  also  to  cement  and  perfect  their  union. 
In  the  returning  states  of  their  earthly  life,  they 
can  perceive  those  things  which  stood  in  the 
way  of  complete  harmony ;  and,  as  they  succes- 
sively recur,  they  can  remove  those  obstructions 
out  of  the  way.  Each  can  reject  those  outward 
things  which  mar  the  happiness  of  the  other ; 
and  both  can  avoid  those  contrarieties  of  habit 
and  demeanor,  of  love  and  thought,  which  took 
their  minds  from  each  other,  and  prevented  their 
entering  into  the  complete  conjugial  state.  As 
this  goes  on,  they  are  continually  becoming 
more  and  more  married.  Their  souls  enter 
ever  more  implicitly  into  each  other's  states ; 
and  their  spirits,  as  they  vibrate,  are  constantly 
attuned  to  a  fuller  harmony.  Their  whole  minds 
become  attempered  to  one  life.  They  feel  a  com- 
mon love,  and  think  a  common  wisdom.  The 
will  of  the  one  becomes  also  the  will  of  the 
other,  and  the  understanding  of  one  becomes 
the  understanding  of  the  other.  Perpetually 
more  and  more  do  they  acquire  "  one  heart,  one 
mind,  one  way." 

Thus  are  they  prepared  for  heaven,  as  the 
heavenly  state  descends,  and  finds  reception  and 


144 


THE  TWO  WAYS;  OR,  THE 


an  abiding-place  in  their  minds :  for  heaven  does 
not  come  or  descend  until  internal  and  external 
are  one ;  until  love  and  wisdom,  or  good  and 
truth,  are  one ;  until  male  and  female,  or  hus- 
band and  wife,  are  one. 

No  pair  can  enter  into  heaven,  and  permanent- 
ly remain  there,  who  are  not  conjugially  united 
as  to  the  interiors  of  their  minds,  or  spirits  ;  for, 
in  the  spiritual  world,  the  differences  of  mental 
state  create  the  spaces  or  distances.  Difference 
of  taste  or  love  or  state  removes  people  from 
each  other.  Contrariety  of  state  corresponds 
to  distance  in  space :  the  latter  is  the  natural 
symbol  of  the  former,  and  the  former  is  typed 
and  expressed  in  the  latter.  Hence,  in  the  other 
world,  those  who  are- in  states  most  unlike  are 
most  remote  from  each  other;  while  such  as 
are  in  states  most  nearly  similar  are  respec- 
tively nearer  together.  From  this  law  of  ar- 
rangement and  distribution,  it  follows,  that  those 
only  are  able  to  live  intimately  associated,  and 
to  abide  together  in  one  house,  who  are  closely 
united  in  mind,  and  can  continue  to  remain  in 
exactly  similar  states  of  affection  and  thought. 

Those  who,  after  they  have  been  prepared  for 
if,  still  enter  into  the  confines  of  heaven  in  a 


CALLED  AXD  THE  CHOSEN. 


145 


single  or  unmarried  state  (as  is  the  case  with  all 
who  have  lived  in  chaste  love  and  been  obe- 
dient to  the  Lord's  commandments),  have  part- 
ners there  provided  for  them.  After  they  have 
found  them,  nuptials  are  celebrated ;  subsequent 
to  which,  the  employments  of  heaven  —  the 
offices,  ministries,  and  uses,  with  the  joys  and 
delights,  of  angelic  life  —  are  entered  upon. 

The  case  is  similar  with  those  who  have  passed 
into  the  other  world  in  infancy  or  childhood,  and 
have  been  trained  and  educated  in  the  heavenly 
societies.  As  soon  as  they  arrive  at  maturity, 
they  find  partners,  and  are  married,  as  the  angels 
are.  We  are  told,  that  when  two  meet,  in  the 
heavenly  realm,  who  are  intended  for  each  other, 
they  instantly  know  that  they  are  mutual  partners 
by  an  internal  perception  or  dictate.  The  meet- 
ing most  frequently  has  the  appearance  of  coming 
by  chance.  They  are  not,  however,  matters  of 
accident,  but  are  caused  in  full  freedom  of  the 
parties,  under  the  fatherly  care  and  divine  pro- 
vidence of  the  Lord. 

Thus  heaven  consists  mainly  of  married  pairs ; 
and  none  remain  there  single  after  the  age  of 
full  maturity.  They  who  on  earth  have  lived 
good  lives,  and  yet  have  confirmed  themselves 
in  a  celibate  state  from  a  principle  of  religion, 
in 


146  the  two  ways  ;  or,  the 


are  indeed  admitted  into  heaven,  but  dwell  there 
only  about  the  circumferences ;  for  the  universal 
conjugial  sphere  which  flows  down  into  heaven 
from  the  Lord,  encompassing  and  pervading 
every  part  of  it  like  an  atmosphere,  is  exhaled 
everywhere  as  an  aromatic  perfume,  or  odor, 
most  grateful  and  delightsome,  indeed,  to  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  angels,  but  which  is  per- 
ceived as  something  not  agreeable  or  delightful 
to  such  as  are  inwardly  principled  in  a  life  of 
celibacy.  Hence  they  have  a  perpetual  inclina- 
tion to  withdraw  from  it.  It  is  a  property 
of  the  heavenly  atmosphere,  that  objects  seen 
through  it  at  a  distance,  when  illuminated  by 
the  light  which  shines  down  from  the  Lord 
through  the  sun  that  appears  above  heaven, 
take  upon  themselves  an  outward  appearance 
corresponding  to  their  inward  quality.  Thus 
an  angel  of  the  superior  heavens,  who  is  princi- 
pled in  perfect  innocence  of  mind,  appears  from 
a  distance  as  an  infant :  for  the  infantile  form 
corresponds  to  and  symbolizes  that  state,  as 
innocency  is  the  state  of  infancy ;  and  it  is  not 
until  a  near  approach  that  the  apparent  infant  is 
discovered  to  be  a  man.  So,  too,  a  married  pair, 
who  are  perfectly  united  in  mind,  appear,  when 
viewed  a  long  way  olF,  as  one  person ;  and  it  is 


CALLED  AMD  THE  CHOSEN.  U7 

not  until  ihey  draw  near  to  the  beholder  that 
their  distinctness  is  perceived,  and  they  are 
seen  to  be  male  and  female.  It  is  from  this  cir- 
cumstance, among  others,  that  a  husband  and 
wife  are  called  one  man,  and,  in  heaven,  one 
angel.  All  the  angels  are  married  pairs.  No 
single  individual  in  the  whole  heavenly  world 
is  an  angel  by  himself  or  herself.  It  is  only  as 
two  become  one  that  angels  are  produced. 

Hence  the  popular  Christian  superstition,  that 
angels  are  without  sex,  has  a  basis  of  genuine 
truth  for  its  ground,  while  its  rational  explana- 
tion comes  in  a  manner  quite  different  from  the 
anticipation. 


CHAPTER  TENTH. 


"  A  happy  lot,  and  hallowed, 
Even  as  the  joy  of  impels, 
Where  the  golden  chain  of  godliness 
Is  intwined  with  the  ro<es  of  love." 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 

"  Neither  can  they  die  any  more  :  for  they  are  equal 
unto  the  angels;  and  are  the  children  OF  GOD,  IiEING 

THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  RESURRECTION."  —  Luke  XX.  36. 


OULD  it  be  quite  honorable,  all  things 


"  "  considered,  to  leave  this  subject  entirely, 
just  at  the  point  where  the  end  of  the  previous 
chapter  dropped  it  ?  Does  not  strict  literary 
propriety  suggest  that  the  reader  should  be 
introduced  to  at  least  a  few  extracts  from  that 
author,  out  of  whom  all  these  views  have  been 
gathered  ?  And  does  not  the  inquisitive  heart, 
too,  ask  for  just  one  glimpse  further  to  satisfy  — 
its  curiosity,  shall  we  say?  Yes  :  but  something, 
too,  better  than  that,  —  its  innate  longing  desire 
to  know. 

Old  prejudices  aside,  then ;  and  let  us  invoke 
one  of  our  quiet,  reflective,  spiritual  moods. 
Let  us  put  on,  if  we  can,  something  of  that 
calm,  receptive  spirit  in  which  the  Apostle  John 


152  THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 


must  have  been,  when  he  penned  the  following 
lines :  — 

"  And  one  of  the  elders  answered,  saying  unto 
rne,  What  are  these  which  are  arrayed  in  white 
robes  ?  and  whence  came  they  ?  And  I  said 
unto  him,  Sir,  thou  knowest.  And  he  said  unto 
me,  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great 
tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes,  and 
made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of  God,  and 
serve  Him  day  and  night  in  His  temple.  And 
He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall  dwell  among 
them.  They  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst 
any  more  ;  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on  them, 
nor  any  heat.  For  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the 
midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed  them,  and  shall 
lead  them  unto  living  fountains  of  waters ;  and 
God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes  " 
(Rev.  vii.  13-17). 

And  in  reverent  mood,  with  minds  open  to 
apprehension  of  higher  and  more  enduring  reali- 
ties than  those  of  earth,  let  us  peruse  Emanuel 
Swedenborg's  account  of — 

A  MARRIAGE  IN  HEAVEN. 

"  Towards  evening,  there  came  a  messenger 
clothed  in.  linen  to  the  ten  strangers  who  attend- 


THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 


153 


ed  the  angel,  and  invited  them  to  a  marriage 
ceremony  which  was  to  be  celebrated  the  next 
day ;  and  the  strangers  were  much  rejoiced  to 
think  that  they  were  also  to  be  present  at  a  mar- 
riage ceremony  in  heaven.  After  this,  they 
were  conducted  to  the  house  of  one  of  the  coun- 
sellors, and  supped  with  him ;  and  after  supper 
they  returned  to  the  palace,  and  each  retired 
apart  into  his  own  bed-chamber,  where  they 
slept  till  morning.  "When  they  awoke,  they 
heard  the  singing  of  the  virgins  and  young 
girls  from  the  houses  around  the  public  places 
of  resort  which  we  mentioned  above.  They 
sung  that  morning  the  affection  of  conjugial 
love  ;  the  sweetness  of  which  did  so  affect  and 
move  the  hearers,  that  they  perceived  sensibly 
a  blessed  serenity  instilled  into  their  joys,  which 
at  the  same  time  exalted  and  renewed  them. 

"  At  the  hour  appointed,  the  angel  said, '  Make 
yourselves  ready,  and  put  on  the  garments  of 
heaven  which  our  prince  sent  you.'  And  they 
did  so  ;  and,  lo  !  the  garments  were  resplendent 
as  with  flaming  light.  And  they  asked  the 
angel,  '  Whence  is  this  ?  '  He  replied,  '  Be- 
cause you  are  going  to  a  marriage  ceremony ; 
and,  when  that  is  the  case,  our  garments  always 
assume  a  shining  appearance,  and  become  mar- 
riage garments.' 


154  THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 


"  After  this,  the  angel  conducted  them  to  the 
house  where  the  nuptials  were  to  be  celebrated, 
and  the  porter  opened  the  door ;  and  presently, 
being  admitted  within  the  house,  they  were  re- 
ceived and  welcomed  by  an  angel  sent  from  the 
bridegroom,  and  were  introduced,  and  shown  to 
the  seats  intended  for  them.  And,  soon  after, 
they  were  invited  into  an  ante-chamber,  where 
they  saw,  in  the  middle,  a  table,  on  which  was 
placed  a  magnificent  candlestick  with  seven 
branches,  and  sconces  of  gold ;  and  against  the 
walls  were  hung  lamps  of  silver,  which,  being- 
lighted,  made  the  atmosphere  appear  as  of  a 
golden  hue.  And  they  observed  on  each  side 
of  the  candlestick  two  tables,  on  which  were 
set  loaves  in  a  triple  order :  there  were  tables 
also  in  the  four  corners  of  the  room,  on  which 
were  placed  cups  of  crystal. 

"  While  they  were  viewing  these  things,  lo  !  a 
door  opened  from  a  closet  near  the  marriage 
chamber,  and  they  saw  six  virgins  come  out; 
and,  after,  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride,  holding 
each  other  by  the  hand,  and  advancing  towards 
a  seat  placed  opposite  to  the  candlestick,  on 
which  they  seated  themselves  (the  bridegroom 
on  the  left  hand,  and  the  bride  on  the  right), 
while  the  six  virgins  stood  beside  the  seat 


THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  O.NES.  155 


near  the  bride.  The  bridegroom  was  dressed 
in  a  robe  of  bright  purple,  and  a  tunic  of  fine 
shining  linen,  with  an  ephod,  on  which  was  a 
golden  plate,  set  round  with  diamonds  ;  and  on 
the  plate  was  engraven  a  young  eagle,  the  mar- 
riage ensign  of  that  heavenly  society :  on  his 
head  he  wore  a  mitre.  The  bride  was  dressed 
in  a  scarlet  mantle,  under  which  was  a  gown, 
ornamented  with  fine  needlework,  that  reached 
from  her  neck  to  her  feet ;  and  beneath  her  bo- 
som she  wore  a  golden  girdle  ;  and  on  her  head 
a  crown  of  gold,  set  with  rubies. 

"  When  they  were  thus  seated,  the  bridegroom 
turned  himself  towards  the  bride,  and  put  a 
golden  ring  on  her  finger.  He  then  took  brace- 
lets and  a  necklace  of  pearl,  and  clasped  the 
bracelets  about  her  wrists,  and  the  necklace 
about  her  neck,  and  said,  'Accept  these  pledges : ' 
and,  as  she  accepted  them,  he  kissed  her,  and 
said,  '  Now  thou  art  mine  ; '  and  he  called  her 
his  wife.  On  this,  all  the  company  cried  out, 
'  May  the  divine  blessing  be  upon  you  ! '  These 
words  were  first  pronounced  by  each  separately, 
and  afterwards  by  all  together :  they  were  pro- 
nounced also,  in  turn,  by  a  certain  person  sent 
from  the  prince  as  his  representative  ;  and  at 
that  instant  the  ante-chamber  was  filled  with  an 


156  TH<E  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 


aromatic  smoke,  which  was  a  token  of  blessing 
from  heaven.  Then  the  servants  in  waiting  took 
loaves  from  the  two  tables  near  the  candlestick, 
and  cups,  now  filled  with  wine,  from  the  tables 
at  the  corners  of  the  room,  and  gave  to  each  of 
the  guests  his  own  loaf  and  his  own  cup ;  and 
they  ate  and  drank.  After  this,  the  husband 
and  his  wife  arose,  and  the  six  virgins  attended 
them  with  the  silver  lamps,  now  lighted  in  their 
hands,  to  the  threshold ;  and  the  married  pair 
entered  the  bed-chamber,  and  the  door  was 
shut,"  — C.  L.  19,  20. 

Some  of  our  readers,  ere  this,  may  have  turned 
back,  being  unwilling  to  go  farther  with  us  into 
this  hitherto  unexplored  region ;  but  those  who 
have  still  kept  on,  we  ask  to  accompany  us  but 
one  stage  more,  and  we  will  leave  them.  On 
another  occasion,  in  the  spiritual  world,  with 
this  pregnant  theme  still  on  his  mind,  lament- 
ing its  decline  in  modern  times,  Swedenborg 
relates :  — 

"  As  we  were  discoursing  and  lamenting  to- 
gether on  this  occasion,  there  suddenly  appeared 
a  beam  of  light,  which,  darting  powerfully  upon 
my  eyes,  caused  me  to  look  up :  and,  lo !  the 
whole  heaven  above  us  appeared  luminous ;  and 
from  the  east  to  the  west,  in  a  long  series,  we 
heard  a  glorification. 


THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 


157 


"  And  the  angel  said  to  me, 4  That  is  a  glorifi- 
cation of  the  Lord  on  account  of  His  coming, 
and  is  made  by  the  angels  of  the  eastern  and 
western  heaven.'  From  the  northern  and  south- 
ern heaven,  nothing  was  heard  but  a  soft  and 
pleasing  murmur.  As  the  angel  understood 
every  thing,  he  told  me,  first,  that  glorifications 
and  celebrations  of  the  Lord  are  made  from 
the  Word,  because  then  they  are  made  from  the 
Lord :  for  the  Lord  is  the  "Word ;  that  is,  essen- 
tial divine  truth  therein.  And  he  said, 4  Now,  in 
particular,  they  glorify  and  celebrate  the  Lord 
by  these  words,  which  were  spoken  by  Daniel 
the  prophet :  44  Thou  saicest  iron  mixed  with  miry 
clay :  they  shall  mix  themselves  together  by  the 
seed  of  man  ;  hut  they  shall  not  cohere.  Never- 
theless, in  those  days,  the  God  of  the  heavens  shall 
cause  a  kingdom  to  arise,  which  shall  not  perish 
for  ages.  It  shall  bruise  and  consume  those  king- 
doms; but  itself  shall  stand  for  ages."  ' —  Dan.  ii. 
43,  44.  After  this,  I  heard,  as  it  were,  the 
voice  of  singing;  and,  further  in  the  east,  I 
saw  a  glittering  light,  more  resplendent  than 
the  former  :  and  I  asked  the  angel  what  was  the 
object  of  their  glorification.  He  said,  1  These 
words  in  Daniel :  44  /  saw  in  the  visions  of  the 
night;  and,  lo  1  with  the  clouds  of  heaven  there 


158 


TIIK  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 


came,  as  it  were,  the  Son  of  Man  ;  and  to  Him 
was  given  dominion  and.  a  kingdom;  and  all 
people  and  nations  shall  worship  Him.  His 
dominion  is  the  dominion  of  an  age  which  shall 
not  pass  away ;  and  His  kingdom,  that  which 
shall  not  perish."  —  Dan.  vii.  13,  14.  They 
are  further  celebrating  the  Lord  from  these 
words  in  the  Revelation :  "  To  Jesus  Christ  be 
glory  and  strength.  Behold,  He  cometh  with 
clouds.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega,  —  the  Begin- 
ning and  the  End,  the  First  and  the  Last;  icho 
is,  who  teas,  and  who  is  to  come,  —  the  Almighty. 
I,  John,  heard  this  from  the  Son  of  Man,  out  of 
the  midst  of  the  seven  candlesticks."  '  —  Rev.  i. 
5-13;  xxii.  13.    Matt.  xxiv.  30,  31. 

"  I  looked  again  into  the  eastern  heaven :  it 
was  enlightened  on  the  right  side,  and  the  light 
entered  the  southern  expanse.  I  heard  a  sweet 
sound ;  and  I  asked  the  angel  what  was  the 
subject  of  their  glorification  in  that  quarter 
respecting  the  Lord.  He  said,  '  These  words 
in  the  Revelation  :  "  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth;  and  I  saw  the  holy  city,  New  Jerusa- 
lem, coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  pre- 
pared as  a  Bride  for  her  Husband.  And  the 
angel  spake  with  me,  and  said,  Come:  I  will  show 
thee  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's  Wife.    And  he  car- 


THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES.  159 


tied  me  away,  in  the  spirit,  upon  a  great  and  high 
mountain,  and  showed  me  the  holy  city  Jerusa- 
lem.^—  Rev.  xxi.  1,  2,  9, 10.  Also  these  words  : 
"  7,  Jesus,  am  the  bright  and  morning  star ;  and 
the  Sjririt  and  the  Bride  say,  Come.  And  He 
said,  Even  I  come  quickly.  Amen :  even  come, 
Lord  Jesus." '  — Rev.  xxii.  16,  17,  20. 

"  After  these  and  several  other  subjects  of 
glorification,  there  was  heard  a  common  glorifi- 
cation from  the  east  to  the  west  of  heaven,  and 
also  from  the  south  to  the  north ;  and  I  asked 
the  angel,  '  What  now  is  the  subject  ? '  He 
said,  '  These  words  from  the  prophets :  "Let  all 
Jlesh  knoiv  that  I,  Jehovah,  am  thy  Saviour  and 
thy  Redeemer."  —  Isa.  xlix.  26.  "  Thus  saith 
Jehovah,  the  King  of  Israel,  his  Redeemer,  Je- 
hovah Zebaoth  :  i"  am  the  First  and  the  Last,  and 
besides  Me  there  is  no  God."  —  Isa.  xliv.  6. 
"  It  shall  be  said  in  that  day,  Lo !  this  is  our 
God,  whom  we  have  expected  to  deliver  us;  this 
is  Jehovah,  whom  we  have  expected."  —  Isa. 
xxv.  9.  "  The  voice  of  him  that  crieth  in  the 
wilderness,  Prepare  a  way  for  Jehovah.  Behold, 
the  Lord  Jehovah  cometh  in  strength :  He  shall 
feed  His  flock  like  a  shepherd."  —  Isa.  xl.  3,  5, 
10, 11.  "  Unto  us  a  Child  is  born ;  tinto  us  a  Soil 
is  given;  whose  name  is  Wonderful,  Counsellor, 


160  THE  VISION  OF  BEATIFIED  ONES. 

God,  Hero,  Father  of  Eternity,  Prince  of 
Peace."  —  Isa.  ix.  6.  li Behold,  the  days  icill  come, 
and  I ivill  raise  up  to  David  a  righteous  Branch, 
who  shall  reign  a  King ;  and  this  is  His  name, 
Jehovah  our  Righteousness."  —  Jcr.  xxiii.  5,  6; 
chap,  xxxiii.  15,  16.  "  Jehovah  Zebaoth  is  His 
name ;  and  thy  Redeemer,  the  Holy  One  of  Isra- 
el: the  God  of  the  whole  earth  shall  He 
be  called."  —  Isa.  liv.  5.  "In  that  day,  Je- 
hovah SHALL  BE  ONE,  AND  HlS  NAME  ONE."  '  — 

Zech.  xiv.  9. 

"  On  hearing  and  understanding  these  words, 
my  heart  exulted,  and  I  went  home  with  joy ; 
and  there  I  returned  out  of  a  state  of  the  spirit 
into  a  state  of  the  body :  in  which  latter  state 
I  committed  to  writing  what  I  had  seen  and 
heard ;  to  which  I  now  subjoin  the  following 
particular :  That  conjugial  love,  such  as  it  was 
with  the  ancients,  will  be  raised  up  again  by 
the  Lord  after  His  coming ;  because  this  love  is 
from  the  Lord  alone,  and  is  the  portion  of  those 
who  from  Him,  by  means  of  the  Word,  are 
made  spiritual."  —  C.  L.  81. 


END. 


Date  Due 


